Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents and the Two Speeches on America
By Edmund Burke
The first three volumes of this set of Select Works of Edmund Burke, fully edited by Edward John Payne (1844-1904), were originally published by the Clarendon Press, Oxford, from 1874 to 1878. Liberty Fund now publishes them again, with a fourth volume of additional writings by Burke. The original set has been praised by Clara I. Gandy and Peter J. Stanlis as “an outstanding critical anthology of Burke’s essential works on the American and French revolutions”; and they went on to say: “The scholarship and criticism is perhaps the best on Burke during the last quarter of the nineteenth century.”… [From the Editor’s Foreword by Francis Canavan.]
Translator/Editor
E. J. Payne, ed.
First Pub. Date
1770
Publisher
Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Fund, Inc.
Pub. Date
1990
Comments
Compiled and with a foreword and notes by Francis Canavan. Vols. 1-3 originally published Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1874-1878. E. J. Payne, Ed. Foreword and notes by Francis Canavan.
Copyright
Portions of this edited edition are under copyright.
- Vol. 1, Editors Foreword
- Vol. 1, Biographical Note
- Vol. 1, Editors Note
- Vol. 1, Introduction
- Vol. 1, Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents
- Vol. 1, Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents
- Vol. 1, Speech of Edmund Burke, Esq. On American Taxation
- accumulatednotes
- Vol. 1, Speech of Edmund Burke, Esq. On Moving His Resolutions for Conciliation with the Colonies
- accumulatednotes
- x1
[Second Edition. Dodsley, 1775.]
April 19, 1774
Speech of Edmund Burke, Esq.,
On American Taxation
[Argument INTRODUCTION, p. 159.PART I, pp. 161-79. REPEAL OF TEA DUTY. Will not lead to demands for further concessions, p. 161. The
Preamble of 1767 really no obstacle to this Repeal, p. 164. The
Letter of Lord Hillsborough gives up in the name of the King and Ministers the principle of American Taxation, p. 170.PART II, pp. 179-212. HISTORY OF AMERICAN TAXATION. Relations of England and the Colonies until 1764, p. 179. Action of
Grenville Ministry, p. 188. Of
Rockingham Ministry, 1765, p. 191. Disturbances in America before the Repeal of the Stamp Act, 1766, p. 199. Quiet after the Repeal, p. 204.
Chatham Ministry revived American Taxation, 1767, p. 205.CONCLUSION, pp. 212-20.]
Preface
*1publication at this time, the Editor hopes, will not be thought unseasonable.
Speech, &c.
d. per pound weight upon tea, payable in all his
*2the Honourable Gentleman who spoke last, that
*3this subject is not new in this House. Very disagreeably to this House, very unfortunately to this Nation, and to the peace and prosperity of this whole Empire, no topic has been more familiar to us. For nine long years, session after session, we have been lashed round and round this miserable circle of
*4
*5this disgusting argument. He has thrown out a speech composed almost entirely of challenges. Challenges are serious things; and as he is a man of prudence as well as resolution, I dare say he has very well weighed those challenges before he delivered them.
*6I had long the happiness to sit at the same side of the House, and to agree with the Honourable Gentleman on all the American questions. My sentiments, I am sure, are well known to him; and I thought I had been perfectly acquainted with his. Though I find myself mistaken, he will still permit me to use the privilege of an old friendship; he will permit me to apply myself to the House under the sanction of his authority; and, on the various grounds he has measured out, to submit to you the poor opinions which I have formed upon a matter of importance enough to demand the fullest consideration I could bestow upon it.
*7the most ample historical detail. His zeal has thrown him a little out of his usual accuracy. In this perplexity what shall we do, Sir, who are willing to submit to the law he gives us? He has reprobated in one part of his Speech the rule he had laid down for debate in the other; and, after narrowing the ground for all those who are to speak after him, he takes an excursion himself, as unbounded as the subject and the extent of his great abilities.
*8to stick to that rule, which, though not consistent with the other, is the most rational. He was certainly in the right when he took the matter largely. I cannot prevail on myself to agree with him in his censure of his own conduct. It is not, he will give me leave to say, either useless or dangerous.
*9He asserts, that retrospect is not wise; and the proper, the only proper, subject of enquiry, is “not how we got into this difficulty, but how we are to get out of it.” In other words, we are, according to him, to consult our invention, and to reject our experience. The mode of deliberation he recommends is diametrically opposite to every rule of reason and every principle of good
*10
*11without the least management for men or measures, further than as they shall seem to me to deserve it. But before I go into that large consideration, because I would omit nothing that can give the House satisfaction, I wish to tread the narrow ground to which alone the Honourable Gentleman, in one part of his Speech, has so strictly confined us.
*12take post on this concession, in order to make a new attack on the next body of taxes; and whether they would not
*13call for a repeal of the duty on wine as loudly as they do now for the repeal of the duty on tea? Sir, I can give no security on this subject. But I will do all that I can, and all that can be fairly demanded. To the
experience which the Honourable Gentleman reprobates in one instant, and reverts to in the next; to that experience, without the least wavering or hesitation on my part, I steadily appeal; and would to God there was no other arbiter to decide on the vote with which the House is to conclude this day!
not in consequence of this measure call upon you to give up the former Parliamentary
*14or even any one of the articles which compose it. I affirm also, that when, departing from the maxims of that repeal, you revived the scheme of taxation, and thereby filled the minds of the Colonists with new jealousy, and all sorts of apprehensions, then it was that they quarrelled with the old taxes, as well as the new; then it was, and not till then, that they questioned all the parts of your legislative power; and by the battery of such questions have shaken the solid structure of this Empire to its deepest foundations.
They at least are convinced that the repeal of the Stamp Act had not, and that no repeal can have, the consequences which the Honourable Gentleman who defends their measures is so much alarmed at. To their conduct I refer him for a conclusive answer to his objection. I carry my proof irresistibly into the very body of both Ministry and Parliament; not on any general reasoning growing out of collateral matter, but on the conduct of the Honourable Gentleman’s Ministerial friends on the new revenue itself.
*15had thus addressed the Minister: “Condemning, as you do, the Repeal of the Stamp Act, Why do you venture to repeal the duties upon glass, paper, and painters’ colours? Let your pretence for the Repeal be what it will, are you not thoroughly convinced, that your concessions will produce, not satisfaction, but insolence, in the Americans; and that the giving up these taxes will necessitate the giving up of all the rest?” This objection was as palpable then as it is now; and it was as good for preserving the five duties as for retaining the sixth. Besides, the Minister will recollect, that the Repeal of the Stamp Act had but just preceded his Repeal; and the ill policy of that measure, (had it been so impolitic as it has been represented,) and the mischiefs it produced, were quite recent. Upon the principles therefore of the Honourable Gentleman, upon the principles of the Minister himself, the Minister has nothing at all to answer. He stands condemned by himself, and by all his associates old and new, as a destroyer, in the first trust of finance, of the revenues; and in the first rank of honour, as a betrayer of the dignity of his Country.
*16left unfinished.
*17and he is the worst of all the repealers, because he is the last.
*18the lie direct given to it by the provisionary part of the Act; if that can be called provisionary which makes no provision. I should be afraid to express myself in this manner, especially in the face of such a formidable array of ability as is now drawn up before me, composed of the
*19antient household troops of that side of the House, and the
*20new recruits from this, if the matter were not clear and indisputable. Nothing but truth could give me this firmness; but plain truth and clear evidence can be beat down by no ability. The Clerk will be so good as to turn to the Act, and to read this favourite Preamble:
Whereas it is
expedient that a revenue should be raised in your Majesty’s Dominions in America, for making a more
certain and
adequate provision for defraying the charge of the
administration of justice and support of civil government, in such Provinces where it shall be found necessary; and towards
further defraying the expenses
of defending, protecting, and securing the said Dominions.
*21Here, Mr. Speaker, is a precious mockery—a preamble without an act—taxes granted in order to be repealed—and the reasons of the grant still carefully kept up! This is raising a revenue in America! This is preserving dignity in England! If you repeal this tax in compliance with the motion, I readily admit that you lose this fair preamble. Estimate your loss in it. The object of the Act is gone already; and all you suffer is the purging the Statute-book of the opprobrium of an empty, absurd, and false recital.
*22the paper in my hand; a paper which I constantly carry about; which I have often used, and shall often use again. What is got by this paltry pretence of commercial principles I know not: for if your government in America is destroyed by the
repeal of Taxes, it is of no consequence upon what ideas the repeal is grounded. Repeal this Tax too upon commercial principles if you please. These principles will serve as well now as they did formerly. But you know that, either your objection to a repeal from these supposed consequences has no validity, or that this pretence never could remove it. This commercial motive never was believed by any man, either in America, which this letter is meant to soothe, or in England, which it is meant to deceive. It was impossible it should. Because every man, in the least acquainted with the detail of Commerce, must know, that several of the articles on which the Tax was repealed, were fitter objects of Duties than almost any other articles that could possibly be chosen; without comparison more so, than the Tea that was left taxed; as infinitely less liable to be eluded by contraband.
*23an advantage in Lead, that amounts to a monopoly. When you find yourself in this situation of advantage, you sometimes venture to tax even your own export. You did so soon after the last war; when, upon this principle, you ventured to impose a duty on Coals. In all the articles of American contraband trade, who ever heard of the smuggling of Red Lead and White Lead? You might, therefore, well enough, without danger of contraband, and without injury to Commerce, (if this were the whole consideration,) have taxed these commodities. The same may be said of Glass. Besides, some of the things taxed were so trivial, that the loss of the objects themselves, and their utter annihilation out of American Commerce, would have been comparatively as nothing. But is the article of Tea such an object in the Trade of England, as not to be felt, or felt but slightly, like White Lead and Red Lead, and Painters’ Colours? Tea is an object of far other importance. Tea is perhaps the most important object, taking it with its necessary connections, of any in the mighty circle of our Commerce. If commercial principles had been the true motives to the Repeal, or had they been at all attended to, Tea would have been the last article we should have left taxed for a subject of controversy.
*25mischief of not having large and liberal ideas in the management of great affairs. Never have the servants of the state looked at the whole of your complicated interests in one connected view. They have taken things by bits and scraps, some at one time and one pretence, and some at another, just as they pressed, without any sort of regard to their relations or dependencies. They never had any kind of system, right or
*26meanly to sneak out of difficulties, into which they had proudly strutted. And they were put to all these shifts and devices, full of meanness and full of mischief, in order to pilfer piece-meal a repeal of an Act, which they had not the generous courage, when they found and felt their error, honourably and fairly to disclaim. By such management, by the
*27irresistible operation of feeble counsels, so paltry a sum as Three-pence in the eyes of a financier,
*28so insignificant an article as Tea in the eyes of a philosopher, have shaken the pillars of a Commercial Empire that circled the whole globe.
*29with all the parade of indiscreet declamation. The
*30monopoly of the most lucrative trades, and the possession of imperial revenues, had brought you to the
*31verge of beggary and ruin. Such was your representation—such, in some measure, was your case. The vent of
*32Ten Millions of pounds of this commodity, now locked up by the operation of an injudicious Tax, and
*33rotting in the warehouses of the Company, would have prevented all this distress, and all that series of desperate measures which you thought yourselves obliged to take in consequence of it. America would have furnished that vent, which no other part of the world can furnish but America; where Tea is
*34next to a necessary of life; and where the demand grows upon the supply. I hope
*35our dear-bought East India Committees have done us at least so much good, as to let us know, that,
*36through the American trade of Tea that your East India conquests are to be prevented from crushing you with their burthen. They are ponderous indeed: and they
*37must have that great country to lean upon, or they tumble upon your head. It is the same folly that has lost you at once the benefit of the West and of the East. This folly has thrown open folding-doors to contraband; and will be the means of giving the profits of the trade of your Colonies to every nation but yourselves. Never did a people suffer so much for the empty words of a preamble. It must be given up. For on what principles does it stand? This famous revenue stands, at this hour, on all the debate, as a description of revenue not as yet known in all the comprehensive (but too comprehensive!) vocabulary of finance—
a preambulary tax. It is indeed a tax of sophistry, a tax of pedantry, a tax of disputation, a tax of war and rebellion, a tax for anything but benefit to the imposers, or satisfaction to the subject.
*38Draw-back here, it is three-pence Custom paid in America.” All this, Sir, is very true. But this is the very folly and mischief of the Act. Incredible as it may seem, you know that you have deliberately thrown away a large duty which you held secure and quiet in your hands, for the vain hope of getting one three-fourths less, through every hazard, through
*39certain litigation, and possibly through war.
*40heavy excises on those articles when used in England. On export, these excises are drawn back. But instead of withholding the Draw-back, which might have been done, with ease, without charge, without possibility of smuggling; and instead of applying the money (money already in your hands) according to your pleasure, you began your operations in finance by flinging away your revenue; you allowed the whole Draw-back on export, and then you charged the duty, (which you had before discharged,) payable in the Colonies; where it was certain the collection would
*41devour it to the bone; if any revenue were ever suffered to be collected at all.
*42One spirit pervades and animates the whole mass.
principle of this measure, and nothing else, that we are at issue. It is a principle of political
declaratory of a right, as some gentlemen seem to argue it; it is only a recital of the
expediency of a certain exercise of a right supposed already to have been asserted; an exercise you are now contending for by ways and means, which you confess, though they were obeyed, to be utterly insufficient for their purpose. You are therefore at this moment in the aukward situation of fighting for a phantom; a quiddity; a thing that wants, not only a substance, but even a name; for a thing, which is
*43neither abstract right, nor profitable enjoyment.
general observations I agree with him—he says, that this subject does not stand as it did formerly. Oh, certainly not! Every hour you continue on this ill-chosen ground, your difficulties thicken on you; and therefore my conclusion is, remove from a bad position as quickly as you can. The
*44a famous address for a revival, and for a new application, of a statute of Henry the Eighth. We besought the King, in that well-considered address, to inquire into treasons, and to bring the supposed traytors from America to Great Britain for trial. His Majesty was pleased graciously to promise a compliance with our request. All the attempts from this side of the House to resist these violences, and to bring about a repeal, were treated with the utmost scorn. An apprehension of the very consequences now stated by the Honourable Gentleman, was then given as a reason for shutting the door against all hope of such an alteration. And so strong was the spirit for supporting the new taxes, that the Session concluded with the following remarkable declaration. After stating the vigorous measures which had been pursued, the Speech from the Throne proceeds:
You have assured me of your
firm support in the
prosecution of them. Nothing, in my opinion, could be more likely to enable the well-disposed among my subjects in that part of the world, effectually to discourage and defeat the designs of the factious and[108] seditious, than the hearty concurrence of every branch of the Legislature, in
maintaining the execution of the laws in
every part of my Dominions.
I can take upon me to assure you, notwithstanding insinuations to the contrary, from men with
factious and seditious views, that his Majesty’s
present Administration have at no time entertained a design to propose to Parliament to lay any further taxes upon America for the purpose of RAISING A REVENUE; and that it is at present their intention to propose, the next Session of Parliament, to take off the duties upon glass, paper, and colours, upon consideration of such duties
having been laid contrary to the true principles of Commerce.
These have
always been, and
still are, the sentiments of his
Majesty’s present servants; and by which
their conduct in respect to America has been governed. And
his Majesty relies upon your prudence and fidelity for such an explanation of
his measures, as may tend to remove the prejudices which have been excited by the misrepresentations of those who are enemies to the peace and prosperity of Great Britain and her Colonies; and to re-establish that mutual
confidence and affection, upon which the glory and safety of the British Empire depend.
*45canonical book of ministerial scripture; the General Epistle to the Americans. What does the gentleman say to it? Here a repeal is promised; promised without
*46I conceal the ridiculous figure of Parliament, hurling its thunders at the gigantic rebellion of America; and then, five days after, prostrate at the feet of those assemblies we affected to despise; begging them, by the intervention of our ministerial sureties, to receive our submission, and heartily promising amendment.
*47
factious men, and with seditious views, could charge them with it? does not this Letter adopt and sanctify the American distinction of
taxing for a revenue? does it not formally reject all future taxation on that principle? does it not state the ministerial rejection of such principle of taxation, not as the occasional, but the constant, opinion of the King’s servants? does it not say, I care not how consistently—but does it not say, that their conduct with regard to America has been
always governed by this policy? It goes a great deal further. These excellent and trusty servants of the King, justly fearful lest they themselves should have lost all credit with the world, bring out the image of their gracious Sovereign from the inmost and most sacred shrine, and they pawn him as a security for their promises—”
His Majesty relies on your prudence and fidelity for such an explanation of
his measures.” These sentiments of the Minister, and these measures of his Majesty, can only relate to the principle and practice of taxing for a revenue; and accordingly Lord Botetourt, stating it as such, did, with great propriety, and in the exact spirit of his instructions,
always been those of the Ministers, and by which
their conduct in respect to America had been governed, should by some possible revolution, favourable to wicked American taxers, be hereafter counteracted. He addresses them in this manner:
It may possibly be objected, that, as his Majesty’s present administration are
not immortal, their successors may be inclined to attempt to undo what the present Ministers shall have attempted to perform; and to that objection I can give but this answer; that it is my firm opinion, that the plan I have stated to you will certainly take place; and that it will never be departed from; and so determined am I for ever to abide by it, that I will be content to be declared infamous, if I do not, to the last hour of my life, at all times, in all places, and upon all occasions, exert every power with which I either am or ever shall be legally invested, in order to obtain and
maintain for the Continent of America that
satisfaction which I have been authorized to promise this day, by the
confidential servants of our gracious Sovereign, who to my certain knowledge rates his honour so high,
that he would
*48rather part with his crown, than preserve it by deceit.
*50Noble Lord upon the floor, and of all the King’s then Ministers, who (with I think the exception of two only) are his Ministers at this hour. The very first news that a British
confidential communications from his Majesty’s
confidential servants. We were nothing but instruments. Do you, after this, wonder that you have no weight and no respect in the Colonies? After this, are you surprised, that Parliament is every day and everywhere losing (I feel it with sorrow, I utter it with reluctance) that reverential affection, which so endearing a name of authority ought ever to carry with it; that you are obeyed solely from respect to the bayonet; and that this House, the ground and pillar of freedom, is itself held up only by the treacherous under-pinning and clumsy buttresses of arbitrary power?
*51Session of 1768, that Session of idle terror and empty menaces, you had, as you were often pressed to do, repealed these taxes; then your strong operations would have come justified and enforced, in case your concessions had been returned by outrages. But, preposterously, you began with violence; and before terrors could have any effect, either good or bad, your Ministers immediately begged pardon, and promised that repeal to the obstinate Americans, which they had refused in an easy, good-natured, complying British Parliament. The assemblies which had been publicly and avowedly dissolved for
their contumacy, are called together to receive
your submission. Your ministerial directors blustered like tragic tyrants here; and then went
*52mumping with
*53send the Ministers
*54tarred and feathered to America, who dared to hold out the Royal Faith for a renunciation of all taxes for revenue. Them you must punish, or this faith you must preserve. The
*55preservation of this faith is of more consequence than the duties on
red lead, or
white lead, or on broken
glass, or
atlas-ordinary, or
demi-fine, or
blue royal, or
bastard, or
fool’s-cap, which you have given up; or the Three-pence on tea which you retained. The Letter went stampt with the public authority of this Kingdom. The instructions for the Colony Government go under no other sanction; and America cannot believe, and will not obey you, if you do not preserve this channel of communication sacred. You are now punishing the Colonies for acting on distinctions, held out by that very Ministry which is here shining in riches, in favour, and in power; and urging the punishment of the very offence to which they had themselves been the tempters.
others, to assure them that you will take good care of
yourself? The medium, the only medium, for regaining their affection and confidence, is, that you will take off something oppressive to their minds. Sir, the Letter strongly enforces that idea: for though the repeal of the taxes is promised on commercial principles, yet the means of counteracting “the insinuations of men with factious and seditious views,” is, by a
*56disclaimer of the intention of taxing for revenue, as a constant invariable sentiment and rule of conduct in the government of America.
British Manufactures.
P. 158, L. 3.publication at this time. The speech was sent to press about the Christmas vacation of 1774.
P. 159, L. 13.the Honourable Gentleman who spoke last. “Charles Wolfran Cornwall, Esq., lately appointed one of the Lords of the Treasury.” (
Burke). For a sketch of him, see Mr. Macknight’s Life of Burke, ii. 52. He was “Member for Grampound, descended from an ancient Herefordshire family, and a sensible lawyer. He (according to Walpole) married a sister of the first Earl of Liverpool: became a Lord of the Treasury in 1774, and Lord Chatham upon the occasion of the offer being made him, writes, ‘If he accepts, Government makes a very valuable and accredited instrument of public business. His character is respectable, and his manners and life amiable. Such men are not to be found every day.’ “; He continued a Junior Lord of the Treasury till 1780, when he was chosen Speaker. He thus figures in the Rolliad;
Burke). For a sketch of him, see Mr. Macknight’s Life of Burke, ii. 52. He was “Member for Grampound, descended from an ancient Herefordshire family, and a sensible lawyer. He (according to Walpole) married a sister of the first Earl of Liverpool: became a Lord of the Treasury in 1774, and Lord Chatham upon the occasion of the offer being made him, writes, ‘If he accepts, Government makes a very valuable and accredited instrument of public business. His character is respectable, and his manners and life amiable. Such men are not to be found every day.’ “; He continued a Junior Lord of the Treasury till 1780, when he was chosen Speaker. He thus figures in the Rolliad;
There Cornewall sits, and oh! unhappy fate!
Must sit for ever through the long debate.
Painful preeminence! he hears, ’tis true,
Fox, North, and Burke, but hears Sir Joseph too;
Like sad Prometheus fastened to his rock,
In vain he looks for pity to the clock;
In vain the effects of strengthening porter tries,
And nods to Bellamy for fresh supplies.
——Rock. Mem., vol. ii.
Must sit for ever through the long debate.
Painful preeminence! he hears, ’tis true,
Fox, North, and Burke, but hears Sir Joseph too;
Like sad Prometheus fastened to his rock,
In vain he looks for pity to the clock;
In vain the effects of strengthening porter tries,
And nods to Bellamy for fresh supplies.
——Rock. Mem., vol. ii.
L. 26.this disgusting
argument. The epithet means no more than “wearisome,” “tedious.” Cp. Goldsmith, Citizen of the World, Letter lvii: “A nobleman has but to take a pen, ink, and paper, write away through three large volumes, and then sign his name to the title page; though the whole might have been before more
disgusting than his own rent-roll, yet signing his name and title gives value to the deed,” &c.
argument. The epithet means no more than “wearisome,” “tedious.” Cp. Goldsmith, Citizen of the World, Letter lvii: “A nobleman has but to take a pen, ink, and paper, write away through three large volumes, and then sign his name to the title page; though the whole might have been before more
disgusting than his own rent-roll, yet signing his name and title gives value to the deed,” &c.
L. 30.I had long the happiness to sit at the same side of the House…. privilege of an old friendship. Cornwall was a renegade from Lord Shelburne’s party, and had spoken with effect on the side of opposition in the debates on the Nullum Tempus Bill, and on Lotteries, as well as on the American question. He accepted office March 12, 1774, together with Lord Beauchamp, afterwards Marquis of Hertford. His speech is reported in the Parliamentary History, vol. xvii.
P. 160, L. 22.the most ample historical detail. It is to this demand of Cornwall’s that we are indebted for the second part of this speech—one of the most interesting passages in English literature. The student should supplement it by reading the Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol, 1777.
P. 161, L. 2.He asserts, that retrospect is not wise. “I think it (the re-opening of the whole question) wrong; and wish only to pursue the present expediency of the measure.” Cornwall’s Speech.
L. 17.without the least management. In the French sense now disused. Dryden:
[283] Mark well what management their tribes divide:
Some stick to you, and some to t’other side.
Some stick to you, and some to t’other side.
Burnet: “The managements of the present administration.”
Infra, p. 197, “He (Rockingham) practised no managements.” “Plus il y a de gens dans une nation qui ont besoin d’avoir des
ménagements entre eux et de ne pas déplaire, plus il y a de politesse.” De l’Esprit des Lois, Liv. xix. c. 27. “Peut-être que ce fut un
ménagement pour le clergé.” Ibid. xxviii. 20.
P. 162, L. 8.or even any one of the articles which compose it. At that time the Colonies would have not opposed duties imposed for the regulation of trade.
P. 163, L. 4.had thus addressed the Minister. Lord North, then Chancellor of the Exchequer.
P. 164, L. 7.and he
is the worst of all the repealers, because he is the last, i.e. Lord North. Lord Rockingham had repealed only one duty, while Lord North had repealed five. These four paragraphs must be understood in their true spirit of open irony in the form of an “argumentum ad hominem.”
is the worst of all the repealers, because he is the last, i.e. Lord North. Lord Rockingham had repealed only one duty, while Lord North had repealed five. These four paragraphs must be understood in their true spirit of open irony in the form of an “argumentum ad hominem.”
P. 165, L. 2.Here Mr. Speaker, is a precious
mockery. Used thus ironically by Locke. ”
Precious limbs was at first an expression of great feeling: till vagabonds, draymen, &c., brought upon it the character of coarseness and ridicule.” Lord Thurlow, Letter to Cowper.
mockery. Used thus ironically by Locke. ”
Precious limbs was at first an expression of great feeling: till vagabonds, draymen, &c., brought upon it the character of coarseness and ridicule.” Lord Thurlow, Letter to Cowper.
P. 165, L. 33.an advantage in Lead, that amounts to a monopoly. The total exports of lead from England in 1852 were about 23,000 tons, of which the United States took nearly a third, being three times as much as any other customer; and this notwithstanding the working of the productive mines of Illinois and Wisconsin. “The lead mines of Granada,” says Mr. Macculloch, “would, were they properly wrought, be among the most productive in the world.” Spain is now a large producer, and the advantage of England no longer exists.
P. 166, L. 20.Sir, it is not a pleasant consideration. Burke here makes a
[284] landing-place, as usual, out of a broad generalisation arising from a particularly striking point in his argument. The student should note the effective use of familiar terms in the body of the paragraph, and its contrast with the rhetorical sentence which concludes it. In the next paragraph he returns to the argument on the preamble, after a digression on the interests of the East India Company, who purchased tea in China with the silver of the Bengal revenue.
L. 22.mischief of not having large and liberal ideas in the management of great affairs. Cp. the peroration of the Speech on Conciliation (
Sursum Corda, p. 289), and especially the following passage from the Second Letter on a Regicide Peace: “In truth, the tribe of vulgar politicians are the lowest of our species. There is no trade so vile and mechanical as government in their hands. Virtue is not their habit. They are out of themselves in any course of conduct recommended only by conscience and glory. A large, liberal, and prospective view of the interests of states passes with them for romance; and the principles that recommend it, for the wanderings of a disordered imagination. The calculators compute them out of their senses. The jesters and buffoons shame them out of everything grand and elevated. Littleness in object and in means, to them appears soundness and sobriety. They think there is nothing worth pursuit, but that which they can handle; which they can measure with a two-foot rule; which they can tell upon ten fingers.”
Sursum Corda, p. 289), and especially the following passage from the Second Letter on a Regicide Peace: “In truth, the tribe of vulgar politicians are the lowest of our species. There is no trade so vile and mechanical as government in their hands. Virtue is not their habit. They are out of themselves in any course of conduct recommended only by conscience and glory. A large, liberal, and prospective view of the interests of states passes with them for romance; and the principles that recommend it, for the wanderings of a disordered imagination. The calculators compute them out of their senses. The jesters and buffoons shame them out of everything grand and elevated. Littleness in object and in means, to them appears soundness and sobriety. They think there is nothing worth pursuit, but that which they can handle; which they can measure with a two-foot rule; which they can tell upon ten fingers.”
P. 167, L. 2.irresistible operation of feeble counsels… circled the whole globe. The device called by the rhetoricians
contentio is here used by Burke with striking effect. Observe the same in the subsequent sentence: “The monopoly of the most lucrative trades… beggary and ruin.” Cp. the passage in the Speech on Economical Reform, ending: “The judges were unpaid; the justice of the kingdom bent and gave way; the foreign ministers remained inactive and unprovided; the system of Europe was dissolved; the chain of our alliances was broken; all the wheels of government at home and abroad were stopped—
because the King’s turnspit was a Member of Parliament.“
contentio is here used by Burke with striking effect. Observe the same in the subsequent sentence: “The monopoly of the most lucrative trades… beggary and ruin.” Cp. the passage in the Speech on Economical Reform, ending: “The judges were unpaid; the justice of the kingdom bent and gave way; the foreign ministers remained inactive and unprovided; the system of Europe was dissolved; the chain of our alliances was broken; all the wheels of government at home and abroad were stopped—
because the King’s turnspit was a Member of Parliament.“
L. 15.verge of beggary and ruin. The Company had agreed to the payment of 400,000
l. per annum to government. But in 1772, while many of their servants had returned to England with large fortunes, the Company became so involved in difficulties as not only to be unable to pay this sum, but to make it necessary that 1,400,000
l. should be advanced to them by the public. The exhaustion of the country, and the expenses incurred in the war with Hyder Ali and France, involved the Company in fresh difficulties; and they were obliged, in 1783, to present a petition to Parliament, setting forth their inability to pay their annual sum of 400,000
l., praying to be excused therefrom, and to be supported by a loan of 900,000
l. (Macculloch.) At this crisis Fox brought in his India Bill, on which Burke made one of the most memorable of his speeches, the last but one of the five parliamentary orations which he gave to the world through the press.
l. per annum to government. But in 1772, while many of their servants had returned to England with large fortunes, the Company became so involved in difficulties as not only to be unable to pay this sum, but to make it necessary that 1,400,000
l. should be advanced to them by the public. The exhaustion of the country, and the expenses incurred in the war with Hyder Ali and France, involved the Company in fresh difficulties; and they were obliged, in 1783, to present a petition to Parliament, setting forth their inability to pay their annual sum of 400,000
l., praying to be excused therefrom, and to be supported by a loan of 900,000
l. (Macculloch.) At this crisis Fox brought in his India Bill, on which Burke made one of the most memorable of his speeches, the last but one of the five parliamentary orations which he gave to the world through the press.
L. 17.Ten Millions of pounds… rotting in the warehouses. It was said by Burke’s critics on the opposite side, that the whole stock of tea in the Company’s warehouses was estimated at this quantity, and that by comparing his own estimate (p. 178) of the American consumption, and taking tea at an average price of five shillings the pound, it would be seen that Burke here exaggerated. It was only a fraction of the whole stock, according to this view, that was “locked up by the operation of an injudicious tax.” This
[285] objection seems, on a careful examination, to be unfounded. In 1772 official reports showed that the warehouses of the Company contained 16,000,000 pounds of tea.
L. 24.next to a necessary of life. The Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, in his Report for 1827, observed: “The use of tea has become so general throughout the United States, as to rank almost as a necessary of life.” The same may be said of Russia and Australia. The duty on tea once formed one of the largest items in the American revenue, but it has for many years been wholly repealed.
L. 25.our dear-bought East India Committees. Alluding to the Select Committee of thirty-one members appointed in pursuance of a motion, April 13, 1772, and the Secret Committee appointed in November of the same year, shortly after the opening of the session. By “dear-bought” Burke means that the practical result of those Committees, represented by the East India Act of 1773, was but small, or at least incommensurate to the difficulties experienced in getting the Committees appointed, and in procuring adequate information on the abuses they were intended to be instrumental in remedying. See Ninth Report from the Select Committee, &c., 25th June, 1783 (in Burke’s Works).
L. 29.through the American trade of Tea that your East India conquests are to be prevented from crushing you with their burthen, &c. The
[286] state of the recent conquest of Bengal was then exciting some not unreasonable apprehensions. Economists were alarmed by the gradual exhaustion of the circulating coin, military men by the attitude of the Mahrattas. Foreign critics described English rule in India as a brilliant illusion. From the origin of the tea trade in the reign of Charles II down to 1834, it was a monopoly in the hands of the East India Company. The history of this monopoly is a striking example of the mischiefs of the whole commercial system. “The teas sold by the Company,” says Mr. Macculloch, in his Commercial Dictionary, “cost the people of Britain, during the last years of the monopoly, upwards of 1,500,000
l. a year more than they would have cost had they been sold at the price at which teas of equal quality were sold, under a system of free competition, in New York, Hamburg, and Amsterdam.” And yet several gentlemen of great experience, who carefully inquired into the state of the Company’s affairs in 1830, expressed their decided conviction that they made nothing by the tea trade—the increased price at which they sold not being more that sufficient to balance the immense expenses incident to the monopoly! “But for the increased consumption of tea in Great Britain,” writes Mr. Macculloch in another place, “the company would have entirely ceased to carry on any branch of trade with the East: and the monopoly would have excluded us as effectually from the markets of India and China as if the trade had reverted to its ancient channels, and the route by the Cape of Good Hope been relinquished.” (Art.
East India Company.)
l. a year more than they would have cost had they been sold at the price at which teas of equal quality were sold, under a system of free competition, in New York, Hamburg, and Amsterdam.” And yet several gentlemen of great experience, who carefully inquired into the state of the Company’s affairs in 1830, expressed their decided conviction that they made nothing by the tea trade—the increased price at which they sold not being more that sufficient to balance the immense expenses incident to the monopoly! “But for the increased consumption of tea in Great Britain,” writes Mr. Macculloch in another place, “the company would have entirely ceased to carry on any branch of trade with the East: and the monopoly would have excluded us as effectually from the markets of India and China as if the trade had reverted to its ancient channels, and the route by the Cape of Good Hope been relinquished.” (Art.
East India Company.)
P. 168, L. 18.Draw-back. Exportation was encouraged sometimes by drawbacks, sometimes by bounties, sometimes by advantageous treaties of commerce with foreign states, and sometimes by the establishment of colonies in distant countries. Drawbacks were given upon two different occasions. When the home manufactures were subject to any duty or excise, either the whole or a part of it was frequently drawn back upon their exportation; and when foreign goods liable to a duty were imported in order to be exported again, either the whole or a part of this duty was sometimes given back upon such exportation. Wealth of Nations, book iv. chap i.
L. 27.heavy excises on those articles. “The duty varied (previously to 1836) on the different descriptions of first-class paper from about 25 or 30 per cent. on the finest, to about 200 per cent. on the coarsest!” (Macculloch.) That on glass was even more exorbitant. “After successive augmentations,” says the same authority, “the duties were raised in 1813 to the amount of 98s. a cwt. on flint and plate glass! and the consequence was, that despite the increase of wealth and population in the interim, the consumption of both these sorts of glass was less than it had been in 1794, when the duty
[287] was only 32s. 2¼d. a cwt.!” The income-tax enabled Peel to abolish this monstrous imposition.
P. 169, L. 2.devour it to the bone. Cp. Europ. Settlements in America, vol. ii. p. 215. “Therefore any failure in the sale of their goods brings them (the tobacco planters) heavily in debt to the merchants in London, who get mortgages on their estates, which are consumed to the bone, with the canker of an eight per cent. usury.”
L. 3.One spirit pervades, &c. Cp. Speech on Conciliation, p. 288.
One common
soul—animates the whole.
—Dryden’s Virgil, vi. 982.
soul—animates the whole.
—Dryden’s Virgil, vi. 982.
Thy courage, like the universal
soul Darts thro’ the troops, and
animates the whole.
—Rowe’s Boileau’s Lutrin, Canto 3.
soul Darts thro’ the troops, and
animates the whole.
—Rowe’s Boileau’s Lutrin, Canto 3.
This jingle is common in the poets of the century, and is parodied in Sydney Smith’s Receipt for a Salad.
P. 170, L. 6.neither abstract right, nor profitable enjoyment.Cp. infra,
p. 213, “Some honourable right, or some profitable wrong.”
p. 213, “Some honourable right, or some profitable wrong.”
P. 171, L. 2.a famous address for a revival. Agreed to in the Commons, February 8, 1769, requesting the King to revive the powers given for this purpose under an obsolete Act of 35 Henry VIII. The excellent speech of Governor Pownall on this occasion should be referred to in illustration of Burke. See the first part of the Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol. The expressions “well-considered address,” “graciously pleased,” &c., are of course ironical.
P. 173, L. 33.rather part with his crown, than preserve it by deceit. A material point is omitted by Mr. Burke in this speech, viz.
the manner in which the Continent received this royal assurance. The assembly of Virginia, in their Address in answer to Lord Botetourt’s speech, express themselves thus: “We will not suffer our present hopes, arising from the pleasing prospect your Lordship hath so kindly opened and displayed to us, to be dashed by the bitter reflection that any
future administration will entertain a wish to depart from that
plan which affords the surest and most permanent foundation of public tranquillity and happiness. No, my Lord, we are sure
our most gracious Sovereign, under whatever changes may happen in his confidential servants, will remain immutable in the ways of truth and justice, and that he is
incapable of deceiving his faithful subjects; and we esteem your Lordship’s[288] information not only as warranted, but even sanctified
by the royal word.” (
Burke.)
the manner in which the Continent received this royal assurance. The assembly of Virginia, in their Address in answer to Lord Botetourt’s speech, express themselves thus: “We will not suffer our present hopes, arising from the pleasing prospect your Lordship hath so kindly opened and displayed to us, to be dashed by the bitter reflection that any
future administration will entertain a wish to depart from that
plan which affords the surest and most permanent foundation of public tranquillity and happiness. No, my Lord, we are sure
our most gracious Sovereign, under whatever changes may happen in his confidential servants, will remain immutable in the ways of truth and justice, and that he is
incapable of deceiving his faithful subjects; and we esteem your Lordship’s
by the royal word.” (
Burke.)
P. 174, L. 6.Noble Lord upon the floor. Lord North, sitting in the front or lowest rank of the Treasury benches.
P. 175, L. 6.mumping with a sore leg. To
mump, in cant language, “to go a begging.” Johnson. The word may, however, be regarded as a classical vulgarism. “You it seems may mump it at your sister’s.” Echard’s Terence. Cp. Third Letter on a Regicide Peace, “Our embassy of
shreds and patches, with all its mumping cant.”
mump, in cant language, “to go a begging.” Johnson. The word may, however, be regarded as a classical vulgarism. “You it seems may mump it at your sister’s.” Echard’s Terence. Cp. Third Letter on a Regicide Peace, “Our embassy of
shreds and patches, with all its mumping cant.”
L. 22.tarred and feathered. A species of punishment peculiar to America. Mr. Flaw, in Foote’s comedy of the “Cozeners,” promises O’Flanagan that if he discharges properly his duty of a tidewaiter in the inland part of America, he will be “found in tar and feathers for nothing.” “When properly mixed, they make a genteel kind of dress, which is sometimes wore in that climate—very light, keeps out the rain, and sticks extremely close to the skin.”
L. 25.preservation of this faith… red lead, white lead, &c. By way of forcing his audience into some largeness of ideas, Burke often contrasts a great moral principle with a group of technical names. Cp. p. 288: “Your registers and your bonds, your affidavits and your sufferances, your cockets and your clearances,” &c. Observations on State of Nation: “Visions of stamp duties on Perwannas, Dusticks, Kistbundees, and Hushbulhookums.” Vol. ii. p. 193. “The State ought not to be considered nothing better than a partnership agreement in a trade of pepper and coffee, calico or tobacco, or some other such low concern,” &c. Atlas-ordinary, &c., are papers of different qualities and sizes.
P. 176, L. 16.disclaimer = act of disclaiming.
P. 177, L. 14.the very citadel of smuggling, the Isle of Man—annexed to the Crown in 1765. “Just loaded yonder from Douglas in the Isle of Man—neat cognac,” &c. Guy Mannering, ch. iv.
P. 178, L. 27.the end of every visto. Cp. vol. ii. p. 171, l. 27. Johnson only gives the more correct
vista. Cp. the Sir Visto of Pope, Moral Essays, Ep. iv. Dyer, Grongar Hill:[289] “A long, dull, dreary, unvaried visto of despair and exclusion.” Speech on Econ. Reform.
vista. Cp. the Sir Visto of Pope, Moral Essays, Ep. iv. Dyer, Grongar Hill:
And groves, and grottoes where I lay,
And vistoes shooting beams of day.
And vistoes shooting beams of day.
IBID.Your commerce, &c.,
all jointly oblige you to this repeal. “If any man,” says Professor Goodrich, “has been accustomed to regard Mr. Burke as more of a rhetorician than a reasoner, let him turn back and study over the series of arguments contained in this first head. There is nothing in any of the speeches of Mr. Fox or Mr. Pitt which surpasses it for close reasoning on the facts of the case, or the binding force with which at every step the conclusion is linked to the premises. It is unnecessary to speak of the pungency of its application, or the power with which he brings to bear upon Lord North the whole course of his measures respecting the Colonies, as an argument for repealing this ‘solitary duty on tea.’ “;
all jointly oblige you to this repeal. “If any man,” says Professor Goodrich, “has been accustomed to regard Mr. Burke as more of a rhetorician than a reasoner, let him turn back and study over the series of arguments contained in this first head. There is nothing in any of the speeches of Mr. Fox or Mr. Pitt which surpasses it for close reasoning on the facts of the case, or the binding force with which at every step the conclusion is linked to the premises. It is unnecessary to speak of the pungency of its application, or the power with which he brings to bear upon Lord North the whole course of his measures respecting the Colonies, as an argument for repealing this ‘solitary duty on tea.’ “;
P. 179, L. 14.to say something on the historical part… open myself fully on that important and delicate subject. The history of American taxation, which follows, is probably the best known section of all Burke’s speeches and writings, and its parts are among the most popular “elegant extracts” of the English Classics. This portion of the speech bears marks of careful elaboration previous to delivery.
L. 22.the Act of Navigation. Passed by Cromwell in 1651, with the design of taking the carrying trade out of the hands of the Dutch. It prohibited amongst other things the importation into England and her Colonies, by foreign vessels, of any commodities which were not the growth and manufacture of the countries to which these vessels belonged. The policy of this Act, now totally repealed, was preserved in subsequent ones. See Smith’s Wealth of Nations, book iv. chap. 2, and Macculloch’s note.
L. 24.the commercial system was wholly restrictive. See Smith’s Wealth of Nations, book iv. It is justly observed by Smith that though the policy of Great Britain, with regard to the trade of her Colonies, was dictated by the same mercantile spirit as that of other nations, it had, upon the whole, been less illiberal and oppressive than that of any of them.
L. 25.the system of a monopoly. “Prior to this era (the peace of Paris) you were content with drawing from us the wealth produced by our commerce. You restrained our trade in every way that could conduce to your emolument. You exercised unbounded sovereignty over the sea. You named the ports and nations to which alone our merchandise should be carried, and with whom alone we should trade; and, though some of these restrictions were grievous, we nevertheless did not complain; we looked up
[290] to you as to our parent state, to which we were bound by the strongest ties, and were happy in being instrumental to your prosperity and your grandeur.” Address of Congress to the people of Great Britain, September 5, 1774.
P. 180, L. 6.your superintending legislative power. Cp. infra, pp. 217, 218, 251.
P. 181, L. 27.attended the Colonies from their infancy. This is not strictly correct. “On the contrary, the charters granted to the founders of the settlement in Virginia
distinctly empower the colonists to carry on a direct intercourse with foreign states. Nor were they slow to avail themselves of this permission; for they had, as early as 1620, established tobacco warehouses in Middelburg and Flushing.” (See further on this subject, Macculloch, Art.
Colonies and Colony Trade.) The Navigation Acts of Cromwell and of Charles II founded the monopoly system.
distinctly empower the colonists to carry on a direct intercourse with foreign states. Nor were they slow to avail themselves of this permission; for they had, as early as 1620, established tobacco warehouses in Middelburg and Flushing.” (See further on this subject, Macculloch, Art.
Colonies and Colony Trade.) The Navigation Acts of Cromwell and of Charles II founded the monopoly system.
P. 182, L. 4.this capital was a hot-bed to them. It was in the sugar Colonies that English capital was most extensively employed. It is observed by Smith that the capital of the French sugar Colonies was, on the other hand, almost entirely the product of the industry of the Colonists themselves.
L. 12.not so much sent as thrown out. “The original relation between the government of the Mother-Country and the New England Colonists was that of tyrant and refugee. The ancient ‘Art of Colonization,’ which it is supposed we have lost and may recover, consisted in persecuting the Puritans till they fled to the New World…. That which James I gave the founders of New England, under the name of a charter, was the inestimable boon of his neglect. It made them the fathers of a great nation. Later governments were more beneficent. They forcibly endowed the Southern States with the slave trade—the root of the present war (1862). Let us bless Lord North and Mr. Grenville that the war is not on
our hands.” Goldwin Smith, The Empire, p. 84. The Puritans established the four Colonies of New England; the Catholics, treated with much greater injustice, that of Maryland; and the Quakers, that of Pennsylvania. The persecution of the Portuguese Jews by the Inquisition was the foundation of the prosperity of the Brazils. “Upon all these different occasions,” says Adam Smith, “it was not the wisdom and policy, but the disorder and injustice of the European Governments, which peopled and cultivated America.”
our hands.” Goldwin Smith, The Empire, p. 84. The Puritans established the four Colonies of New England; the Catholics, treated with much greater injustice, that of Maryland; and the Quakers, that of Pennsylvania. The persecution of the Portuguese Jews by the Inquisition was the foundation of the prosperity of the Brazils. “Upon all these different occasions,” says Adam Smith, “it was not the wisdom and policy, but the disorder and injustice of the European Governments, which peopled and cultivated America.”
L. 27.sole disposal of her own internal government. “The Colony Assemblies had not only the legislative, but a part of the executive power. In Connecticut and Rhode Island, they elected the governor. In the other Colonies, they appointed the revenue officers who collected the taxes imposed by those respective Assemblies, to whom those officers were immediately responsible. There is more equality, therefore, among the English
[291] Colonists, than among the inhabitants of the mother-country.” Adam Smith, book iv. ch. 7.
P. 183, L. 35.close of the last war… a scheme of government new in many things.Cp. the Present Discontents. American independence began to dawn upon the world with the rise of the Royal party. At the most unhappy juncture, just as the Colonists had been permanently freed from foreign danger by the acquisition of Canada, a plan was formed, and its execution commenced, to abolish the charters of the Colonies and “make them all royal governments.” (Bancroft, v. 83, note.) This arbitrary policy required a standing army, which was to be maintained by those whom it was destined to oppress. Ibid. The fifth and sixth volumes of Bancroft should be studied by those who wish to understand this speech in all its bearings.
P. 184, L. 5.the necessity was established, i. e. was confidently asserted—thought to be established. The great accession of French territory, inhabited by French subjects, in Lower Canada, certainly justified some increase of the military establishment.
L. 6.capable of seats in this House.Cp. Present Discontents.
L. 19.Townshend, in a brilliant harangue. “No man in the House of Commons was thought to know America so well; no one was so resolved on making a thorough change in its constitutions and government. ‘What schemes he will form,’ said the proprietary of Pennsylvania (February 11, 1763), ‘we shall soon see.’ But there was no disguise about his schemes. He was always for making thorough work of it with the Colonies.” Bancroft, v. 81.
L. 29.considered his objects in lights that were rather too detached. Burke’s intimacy with Reynolds should be remembered. The art of painting often furnished Burke with admirable illustrations. “Reformation is one of those pieces which must be put at some distance in order to please.” (Speech on Economical Reform.) “The works of malice and injustice are quite in another style. They are finished with a bold, masterly hand; touched as they are with the spirit of those vehement passions that call forth all our energies, whenever we oppress and persecute.” (Speech at Bristol previous to the Election.) “A group of regicide and sacrilegious slaughter was indeed boldly sketched, but it was only sketched. It unhappily was left unfinished, in this great history-piece of the massacre of innocents. What hardy pencil of a great master will finish it,” &c.
Vol. ii. p. 166.
Vol. ii. p. 166.
L. 30.Whether the business of an American revenue was imposed upon him altogether. The words of Walpole, “Grenville adopted, from Lord Bute, a plan of taxation formed by Jenkinson,” seem to express the truth. George the Third forced it upon Grenville, who is said to have at first
[292] positively declined the task. See Wraxall’s Historical Memoirs, vol. 1. p. 418 sqq.
P. 185, L. 4.to lean on
the memory—to be severe upon. So our colloquialism “to be hard upon.” Erskine, Speech for Paine; “God forbid that I should be thought to
lean upon her unfortunate monarch (Louis XVI).”
the memory—to be severe upon. So our colloquialism “to be hard upon.” Erskine, Speech for Paine; “God forbid that I should be thought to
lean upon her unfortunate monarch (Louis XVI).”
L. 8.A first-rate figure in this country. Mr. Grenville, though not a man of first-rate abilities, was a distinguished financier. His whole policy was directed to making the most of the revenue, and especially to do this by repressing smuggling both in England and the colonies. He was also a rigid economist, and made good bargains for the public with capitalists. He was, says Dr. Bisset, “a most frugal, faithful, and skilful steward to his country.” In 1764, after the termination of a costly war of seven years, he was able to bring forward a budget which proposed no additional taxes.
L. 12.as a pleasure he was to enjoy, &c. Burke says the same of his own son. “He was made a public creature; and had no enjoyment whatever, but in the performance of some duty.” (Letter to a Noble Lord.) “No man,” says South, “ever was, or can be, considerable in any art or profession whatsoever, which he does not take a particular delight in.” “Use also such persons as affect (i. e. love) the business wherein they are employed.” Bacon, Essay on Negotiating. “Pleasures are all alike, simply considered in themselves: he that hunts, or he that governs the commonwealth.” Selden, Table-talk.
L. 17.not by the low, pimping politicks of a Court.Cp. the quotation from Addison, p. 149, ante.
L. 26.He was bred to the law, &c. With this portrait of Grenville, in which generosity to a deceased foe leads Burke, as in that of Townshend, to be onesided, should be compared those by Mr. Bancroft and Lord Macaulay. The North Briton, No. 46, contains a coarse sketch of him from Wilkes’s point of view. Of Burke’s sketch Professor Goodrich says, “It does not so much describe the objective qualities of the man, as the formative
[293] principles of his character. The traits mentioned were
causes of his being what he was, and doing what he did. They account (and for this reason they were brought forward) for the course he took in respect to America. The same also is true respecting the sketch of Lord Chatham. This is one of the thousand exhibitions of the philosophical tendencies of Mr. Burke’s mind, his absorption in the idea of cause and effect, of the action and reaction of principles and feelings.” Cp. the contrast of the functions of the lawyer and the legislator in the Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol.
causes of his being what he was, and doing what he did. They account (and for this reason they were brought forward) for the course he took in respect to America. The same also is true respecting the sketch of Lord Chatham. This is one of the thousand exhibitions of the philosophical tendencies of Mr. Burke’s mind, his absorption in the idea of cause and effect, of the action and reaction of principles and feelings.” Cp. the contrast of the functions of the lawyer and the legislator in the Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol.
P. 186, L. 2.There is no knowledge which is not valuable. “Burke was a strong advocate for storing the mind with multiform knowledge, rather than confining it to one narrow line of study.” Life of Crabbe, by his Son.
L. 3.men too much conversant, &c. Of such men Professor Smyth says, “They mistake their craft for sagacity, their acquaintance with detail for more profound wisdom,… if any crisis of human affairs occurs, they are the most fatal counsellors, with or without their intention, that their king or their country can listen to.” Lect. xxxii, on Modern History.
L. 9.as long as things go on in their common order. See Gordon’s Discourses on Tacitus, No. iv. sect. 9, in which the ability derived from practice is contrasted with the powerlessness of extraordinary talents without it.
Cp. vol. ii. p. 134: “It cannot escape observation, that when men are too much confined to professional and faculty habits, and as it were inveterate in the recurrent employment of that narrow circle, they are rather disabled than qualified for whatever depends on the knowledge of mankind, on experience in mixed affairs, on a comprehensive, connected view of the various complicated external and internal interests, which go to the formation of that multifarious thing called a State.”
Cp. vol. ii. p. 134: “It cannot escape observation, that when men are too much confined to professional and faculty habits, and as it were inveterate in the recurrent employment of that narrow circle, they are rather disabled than qualified for whatever depends on the knowledge of mankind, on experience in mixed affairs, on a comprehensive, connected view of the various complicated external and internal interests, which go to the formation of that multifarious thing called a State.”
L. 29.After the war and in the last years of it, &c. The enforcement of the Navigation Act had preceded the Stamp Act. The important trade in British manufactures which the English colonists carried on with those of France and Spain, was certainly against the letter of the Navigation Act, though not, perhaps, against its spirit. This trade was afterwards allowed, though under duties that were virtually prohibitory.
P. 187, L. 1.It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact. Cp. the fine amplification of this by Erskine; “It is the nature of everything that is great and useful, both in the animate and inanimate world, to be wild and irregular,” &c., in the Speech for Stockdale (1789).
L. 29.sudden extinction of the paper currencies. The colonial assemblies during the war had issued notes, which were made a legal tender. To remedy the inconvenience produced by their natural depreciation, Mr. Grenville passed an act which took away from them the nature of a legal tender. Most of the bullion of the Colonies being employed in the trade to England (see Adam Smith), the extinction of the paper currencies must have caused a general stoppage in trade.
L. 33.as their recent services in the war did not at all merit. The Colonies had entered warmly into the war against France, and such was their zeal, that of their own accord they advanced for carrying it on much larger sums than were allotted to their quota by the British Government. (
Goodrich.) See the citations in the next speech, p. 271.
Goodrich.) See the citations in the next speech, p. 271.
P. 188, L. 27.beginning of sorrows. St. Matt. xxiv. 8.
P. 189, L. 5.Great was the applause of this measure here, i.e. throughout the country. Public opinion was from first to last in favour of taxing America. Cp. Burke to Lord Rockingham, Aug. 23, 1775. Rockingham to Burke, Sept. 24, 1775: “I see and lament that the generality of the nation are aiding and assisting in their own destruction; and I conceive that nothing but a degree of experience of the evils can bring about a right judgment in the public at large.” See also Burke to the Duke of Richmond, Sept. 26, 1775.
L. 11.did not object to the principle. It is far from being true that the Americans “did not object to the principle” of the Act of 1764: nor is Mr. Burke correct in saying that they “touched it very tenderly.” The first Act of the British Parliament for the avowed purpose of raising a revenue in America was passed April 5th, 1764. Within a month after the news reached Boston, the General Court of Massachusetts met, and on the 13th of June, 1764, addressed a letter to Mr. Mauduit, their agent in England, giving him spirited and decisive instructions on the subject. It seems he had misconstrued their silence respecting another law, and had not, therefore, come forward in their behalf against the Act. They say, “No agent of the province has power to make concessions in any case without express orders”; and that “the silence of the province should have been imputed to any cause, even to despair, rather than to have been construed into a tacit cession of their rights, or of an acknowledgment of a right in Parliament to impose duties and taxes upon a people who are not represented in the House of Commons.” A Committee was also chosen with power to sit in the recess of the General Court, and directed to correspond with the other provinces on the subject, acquainting them with the instructions sent to Mr. Mauduit, and requesting the concurrence of the other provincial assemblies in resisting “any impositions and taxes upon this and the other American provinces.” Accordingly, in November of the same year, the House of Burgesses in Virginia
[295] sent an address to the House of Lords, and a remonstrance to the House of Commons on the same subject. Remonstrances were likewise sent from Massachusetts and New York to the Privy Council. James Otis also published during this year his pamphlet against the right of Parliament to tax the Colonies, while unrepresented in the House of Commons. This was printed in London in 1765, about the time when the Stamp Act was passed. See Holme’s American Annals, 2nd ed., vol. ii. p. 225-6. (
Goodrich.)
Goodrich.)
P. 190, L. 7.his own favourite governour. Sir Francis Bernard, Governor of Massachuset’s Bay. It was commonly supposed in America that it was he and his coadjutors who laid the original plans for establishing the American revenue, out of which they promised themselves large stipends and extensive patronage.
P. 191, L. 11.Massachuset’s Bay. Massachuset was the collective name of a small Indian tribe.
P. 192, L. 9.a common friend. This expression should always be used instead of our vulgarism, “a mutual friend.”
P. 193, L. 2.the late Mr. Yorke, then Attorney-General. Son of Lord Hardwicke. In an evil hour, casting aside all promises and obligations, he yielded to the offers of the Court and accepted the Chancellorship on the resignation of Lord Camden, 1770. His brother refused to admit him to his presence, and in his agitation and remorse he put an end to his life. See Junius, Letters xxxviii and xlix; Walpole’s Mem., vol. iv. p. 52, and the note p. 53, on his subsequent interview with Burke, and Rockingham’s conduct on the occasion.
L. 6.of that
constitution of mind.Cp. Present Discontents, p. 149, “of
that ingenious paradoxical morality.” A latinism, using
is for
talis, not noticed in Johnson.
constitution of mind.Cp. Present Discontents, p. 149, “of
that ingenious paradoxical morality.” A latinism, using
is for
talis, not noticed in Johnson.
P. 194, L. 13.political equity. (See post, p. 198, l. 28). The principle which should correct and supplement the letter of the law. Cp. ante, p. 124, l. 23, where the idea of equity, of a “large and liberal construction,” and a “discretionary power,” which Burke approved in dealing with the
interests, is reprobated as applied to the
offences, of the subject.
interests, is reprobated as applied to the
offences, of the subject.
P. 195, L. 5.this labour did knight’s service. The expression “yeoman’s service,” as used in Hamlet, Act v. Sc. 2, is applied to the result of labours actually performed by a superior intelligence which might have been done though not so well, by an inferior. Burke gives this expression new dignity by substituting for the “yeoman” the “knight,” whose service was under the feudal law the highest form of land tenure (abolished 12 Charles II). It was indeed in a great measure such “knight’s service” as that here alluded to, which raised Burke so far above his contemporaries in political wisdom, because it brought him into actual contact with so large a mass of political and social facts, which the inferior statesman is content to accept at second-hand.
L. 6.It opened the eyes of several. Burke himself probably knew more about America than any one in England. He had read every accessible authority on the subject at the commencement of the Seven Years’ War, when the attention of the public was strongly drawn to it, for his Account of the European Settlements in America (1757), which has been recognised from the first as a standard authority. Robertson commends it highly. It has not been reprinted in any of the English editions, but is to be found in the American edition.
L. 14.least garbled. Used as now commonly,
in malam partem. To “garble” meant originally to sift the good from the bad, and it is still used in this sense in the drug trade. “They garbled our army,” Lyttelton, Persian Letters. Bolingbroke speaks of “garbling” corporations by prerogative, i.e. excluding the disaffected.
in malam partem. To “garble” meant originally to sift the good from the bad, and it is still used in this sense in the drug trade. “They garbled our army,” Lyttelton, Persian Letters. Bolingbroke speaks of “garbling” corporations by prerogative, i.e. excluding the disaffected.
L. 19.old mercenary Swiss of state… practised instruments of a Court. See note, p. 96, ante. From the days of the battles of Granson and Morat in 1476, and Nanci in 1477, the Swiss mercenaries were highly valued throughout western Europe. Cp. Goldsmith, Traveller:
No product here the barren hills afford,
But man and steel, the soldier and his sword.
But man and steel, the soldier and his sword.
P. 196, L. 2.glaring and dazzling influence at which the eyes of eagles have blenched—alluding to the famous “eagle eye” of Chatham, which was often compared to that of Condé, and his submission to influence in 1766. “Blench, to shrink, to start back, to give way;
not used” (Johnson). It occurs several times in Shakspeare, but is not used by Milton.
Cp. vol. ii. p. 357: “It was wherewithal to dazzle the eye of an eagle. It was not made to entice the smell of a mole,” &c.
not used” (Johnson). It occurs several times in Shakspeare, but is not used by Milton.
Cp. vol. ii. p. 357: “It was wherewithal to dazzle the eye of an eagle. It was not made to entice the smell of a mole,” &c.
L. 9.whose aid was then particularly wanting. The accession of either Chatham, Temple, or Shelburne, was the sole hope of the Rockingham party in their administration of 1765-6. See the speech of Chatham (then Mr.
[297] Pitt) in the debate on the Address, January 14, 1766, containing the well-known passage, “I cannot give them my confidence: pardon me, Gentlemen (bowing to the Ministry), confidence is a plant of slow growth in an aged bosom,” &c. Cp. Lord Chesterfield to his son, Letters, vol. iv. p. 401. “Here is a new political arch almost built, but of materials of so different a nature, and without a key-stone, that it does not, in my opinion, indicate either strength or duration. It will certainly require repairs, and a key-stone, next winter; and that key-stone will, and must necessarily, be Mr. Pitt. It is true, he might have been that key-stone now; and would have accepted it, but not without Lord Temple’s consent: and Lord Temple positively refused.” Chesterfield believes that this “heterogeneous jumble of youth and caducity” must “centre before long in Mr. Pitt and Co.” Pitt was the only person who could have given strength to the Rockingham administration. June 13, 1766, Chesterfield writes: “It is a total dislocation and derangement, consequently, a total inefficiency.” The Duke of Grafton said as much in the Lords, on resigning the Seals. While Pitt was extending to them a useless patronage, the Earl of Bute was cajoling Temple with the prospect of a carte blanche for himself. Animated by the spirit of genuine Whiggism, this nobleman refused in 1770 and 1775 to “wear the livery” of the Court to which nearly all his adherents went over.
L. 23.of a complexion
to be bullied by Lord Chatham. Constantly used by Burke in this sense = bodily temperament. “Their complexion, which might defy the rack, cannot go through such a trial.” Letter to Member of the Assembly. “Our complexion is such, that we are palled with enjoyment, and stimulated with hope.” Appeal from New to Old Whigs, &c., &c. He contrasts moral with
complexional timidity, vol. ii. p. 364.
to be bullied by Lord Chatham. Constantly used by Burke in this sense = bodily temperament. “Their complexion, which might defy the rack, cannot go through such a trial.” Letter to Member of the Assembly. “Our complexion is such, that we are palled with enjoyment, and stimulated with hope.” Appeal from New to Old Whigs, &c., &c. He contrasts moral with
complexional timidity, vol. ii. p. 364.
L. 35.household troops… allies.See note, p. 96, l. 1.
P. 197, L. 10.Earth below shook; Ps. civ. 32, &c.
L. 32.with a melancholy pleasure.See note, p. 151, ante, l. 20.
P. 198, L. 1.almost to a winter’s return of light. The Stamp Act was repealed March 18, 1766. “An event that caused more universal joy throughout the British dominions, than perhaps any other that can be remembered.” Ann. Reg. 1766.
L. 13.expression of the Scripture. Acts vi. 15. Lord Stanhope (vol. v. p. 213) criticises this comparison too severely. It is not a “metaphor” at all: and careful analysis on the ordinary principles of rhetoric discovers in it nothing “overstrained,” “bordering on the ludicrous,” or in the least resembling Pitt’s allusion to the mother of mankind.
L. 16.all that kings in their profusion could bestow. General Conway must have felt this passage keenly, and he deserved it. He was now connected with Lord North, and had gratified the King by going the whole length of the most violent measures against Wilkes. About three weeks before, he had said respecting the Boston Port Bill, that he “was particularly
[298] happy in the mode of punishment adopted in it.” He was then enjoying his reward in the emoluments pertaining to the office of Governor of Jersey, to which he had been promoted, after holding for some years that of Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance. In justice to Conway, it ought, however, to be said, that notwithstanding his hasty remark in favour of the Boston Port Bill, he was always opposed to American taxation. He differed from Lord North at every step as to carrying on the war, and made the motion for ending it, February 22, 1782, which drove Lord North from power. (
Goodrich.)
Goodrich.)
P. 199, L. 10.to revert to the ancient policy of this Kingdom. Cp. pp. 213, 215, and the Speech on Conciliation, passim.
P. 201, L. 25.vermin of Court reporters… bolt out of all their holes. Cp. the expression of Oldham, Sat. i. on Jesuits:
Unkennel those state foxes where they lie
Working your speedy fate and destiny.
Working your speedy fate and destiny.
P. 202, L. 2.an advocate of that faction, a Dr. Tucker. Mr. Forster regards this as an “ill-considered attack” on Dean Tucker, “the only man of that day who thoroughly anticipated the judgment and experience of our own on the question of the American Colonies.” Life of Goldsmith, i. 412. Tucker was for first coercing the Colonists into submission, obliging them to pay their debts, and then enfranchising them, and making alliances with them as so many independent states, on the principle that the gain of England from them would be just as great, and the expense connected with them less. Johnson’s reply to this, is that by doing so before the war, many millions would have been saved. “One wild proposal is best answered by another. Let us restore to the French what we have taken from them. We shall see our Colonists at our feet, when they have an enemy so near them.” Taxation no Tyranny, Works, x. 139. A sufficient account of Tucker’s pamphlets will be found in Smyth’s Lectures on Modern History, No. 32.
P. 203, L. 7.the Earl of Halifax. Through this minister Burke had obtained the Irish Pension of 300
l. a year, in the days of his attachment to Hamilton. It has been remarked, that on this account he spares his memory.
l. a year, in the days of his attachment to Hamilton. It has been remarked, that on this account he spares his memory.
P. 204, L. 2.their importunate buzzing. “Importun” is a common French epithet for troublesome noises.
Cp. vol. ii. p. 180, l. 15, “importunate chink.” “Importunate guinea-fowls,” First Letter on a Regicide Peace.
Cp. vol. ii. p. 180, l. 15, “importunate chink.” “Importunate guinea-fowls,” First Letter on a Regicide Peace.
P. 205, L. 15.in various ways demonstrated, &c. “South Carolina voted Pitt a statue; and Virginia a statue to the King, with an obelisk.” Bancroft, v. 457.
L. 29.Another scene was opened.Cp. ante, p. 186, “when a new and troubled scene is opened.” The expression is common in Bolingbroke.
P. 206, L. 3.Clarum et venerabile nomen, &c. Lucan, l. ix. v. 202.
Cp. p. 207, “As if it were to insult as well as to betray him.”
L. 17.maxims, flowing from an opinion not the most indulgent to our unhappy species. “He made far too little distinction between gangs of knaves associated for the mere purpose of robbing the public, and confederacies of honourable men for the promotion of great public objects.” Macaulay, Essay on Chatham. See the paragraph commencing at p. 147, l. 19.
L. 22.an administration, so checkered and speckled. “Miserable examples of the several administrations constructed upon the idea of systematic discord, monstrous and ruinous conjunctions.” Obs. on a Late State of the Nation. “The last botching of Lord Chatham.” Letter to Rockingham, Oct. 29, 1769. This passage has been called a specimen of “dictionary eloquence.”
P. 207, L. 3. i.e. lying huddled together, like pigs. One of the vulgarisms which, in the opinion of critics, too often disfigure Burke’s pages.
IBID.heads and points, in the same truckle-bed. Supposed to allude to the Right Honourable Lord North and George Cooke, Esq., who were made joint paymasters in the summer of 1766, on the removal of the Rockingham administration. As a handful of pins shaken together will be found to have heads and points confused, so two persons get more space in a narrow bed by lying opposite ways. Cp. Erskine, Speech for Baillie; “Insulated passages, culled out and set
heads and points in their wretched affidavits.” The truckle-bed was “a bed that runs on wheels under a higher bed” (Johnson). Hence to “truckle” to another, in which sense Burke here employs the image. It suggested an amusing passage in the debate on the Reform Bill, 1866: “But I must protest against one portion of the Speech of my Right Hon. Friend (Mr. Lowe), and that is, the portion in which he treated largely of the honour of the Government, and gave his views of the Government as being persons who needed not to be particular, and who were not in a condition to be fastidious on that subject, and he spoke, I think, with marked emphasis of a
truckle-bed in which they were to lie,” &c. Mr. Gladstone, June 4, 1866. On Lord North’s and Mr. Cooke’s joint office, see note to Rockingham Memoirs, vol. i, p. 258.
heads and points in their wretched affidavits.” The truckle-bed was “a bed that runs on wheels under a higher bed” (Johnson). Hence to “truckle” to another, in which sense Burke here employs the image. It suggested an amusing passage in the debate on the Reform Bill, 1866: “But I must protest against one portion of the Speech of my Right Hon. Friend (Mr. Lowe), and that is, the portion in which he treated largely of the honour of the Government, and gave his views of the Government as being persons who needed not to be particular, and who were not in a condition to be fastidious on that subject, and he spoke, I think, with marked emphasis of a
truckle-bed in which they were to lie,” &c. Mr. Gladstone, June 4, 1866. On Lord North’s and Mr. Cooke’s joint office, see note to Rockingham Memoirs, vol. i, p. 258.
L. 22.Deprived of his guiding influence, &c. Lord Macaulay thinks that on the whole, “the worst administration which has governed
[300] England since the Revolution was that of George Grenville.” Mr. Massey has happily transferred this compliment to the Grafton administration. To this Burke would certainly have assented. “The worst government which this country had experienced since the Revolution was the Rump administration of Lord Chatham. While that great man continued at the head of affairs and kept possession of his faculties, it mattered little that the other members of his cabinet were of slender capacity and experience…. Chatham had sketched the plan of a great administration, which his colleagues, deprived of his direction, were utterly unable to fulfil. For the perverse and calamitous measures which superseded the policy of Chatham, it would be a hard measure of justice to load the memory of his successor. The Duke of Grafton has been termed a minister by accident…. Grafton, unconnected with faction, and professing allegiance to Chatham alone, became as chief minister, a passive instrument in the hands of a determined will, in the furtherance of a definite policy. It was
the King who insisted on the prosecution of Wilkes: and it was
the King who urged measures of coercion towards the refractory Colonies.” History of England, i. 402. (Compare, however, the note to p. 189.)
the King who insisted on the prosecution of Wilkes: and it was
the King who urged measures of coercion towards the refractory Colonies.” History of England, i. 402. (Compare, however, the note to p. 189.)
L. 35.For even then, Sir, even before, &c. Cp. p. 97, l. 1. This passage is acknowledged to contain the most gorgeous image in modern oratory. Burke perhaps borrowed the germ of it from Smollett’s “Humphrey Clinker” (Letter of June 2): “Ha! there is the other great phenomenon, the grand pensionary, that weathercock of patriotism, that veers about in every point of the political compass, and still feels the wind of popularity in his tail.
He, too, like a portentous comet, has risen again above the court horizon; but how long he will continue to ascend, it is not easy to foretell, considering his great eccentricity.” The name “grand pensionary” alludes to the similarity between the position of Pitt and the minister of that title in the Dutch Republic. It was sometimes significantly curtailed to “grand pensioner.” Cp. Bacon, Advice to Sir G. Villiers (afterwards Duke of Buckingham): “You are as a new-risen star, and the eyes of all men are upon you; let not your own negligence make you fall like a meteor.” The least rhetorical of writers makes free use of the image: “In the session of 1714, when he had
become lord of the ascendant,” &c. Hallam, Const. Hist. ch. xvi, note. “The Whigs,
now lords of the ascendant,” Ibid.
He, too, like a portentous comet, has risen again above the court horizon; but how long he will continue to ascend, it is not easy to foretell, considering his great eccentricity.” The name “grand pensionary” alludes to the similarity between the position of Pitt and the minister of that title in the Dutch Republic. It was sometimes significantly curtailed to “grand pensioner.” Cp. Bacon, Advice to Sir G. Villiers (afterwards Duke of Buckingham): “You are as a new-risen star, and the eyes of all men are upon you; let not your own negligence make you fall like a meteor.” The least rhetorical of writers makes free use of the image: “In the session of 1714, when he had
become lord of the ascendant,” &c. Hallam, Const. Hist. ch. xvi, note. “The Whigs,
now lords of the ascendant,” Ibid.
P. 208, L. 5.you understand, to be sure. Used as we now use
of course. “Oh, to be sure, it is some very great man that writes it.” Ann. Reg. 1760.
of course. “Oh, to be sure, it is some very great man that writes it.” Ann. Reg. 1760.
L. 6.I speak of Charles Townshend. With this affectionate panegyric should be compared the juster portraiture of Horace Walpole, in his Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 100, who would rank him with Churchill’s “Men void of Principle, and damn’d with Parts.” He is, however, forced to admit that “he seemed to create knowledge instead of searching for it, with a wit so abundant that in him it seemed loss of time to think. He had but to speak, and all he said seemed new, natural, and uncommon.” On the other hand, Grattan, in his character of Pitt, describes him as “for ever on the rack of exertion,” and
[301] contrasts his style with Chatham’s, “lightening upon the subject, and reaching the point by the flashings of his mind, which like those of his eye, were felt, but could not be followed.” Smollett’s character of Townshend is excellent: “At length, a person of a very prepossessing appearance coming in, his grace (Newcastle) rose up, and, hugging him in his arms, with the appellation of ‘My dear Charles!’ led him forth into the inner apartment, or
sanctum sanctorum of this political temple. That, said Captain C——, is my friend Charles Townshend, almost the only man of parts who has any concern in the present administration. Indeed, he would have no concern at all in the matter if the ministry did not find it absolutely necessary to make use of his talents upon some particular occasions. As for the common business of the nation, it is carried on in a constant routine, by the clerks of the different offices, otherwise the wheels of Government would be wholly stopped amidst the abrupt succession of ministers, every one more ignorant than his predecessor. I am thinking what a fine hobble we should be in, if all the clerks of the Treasury, if the secretaries, the War Office, and the Admiralty, should take it into their heads to throw up their places, in imitation of the great pensioner. But to return to Charles Townshend; he certainly knows more than all the Ministry and all the Opposition, if their heads were laid together, and talks like an angel on a vast variety of subjects. He would be really a great man, if he had any consistency or stability of character. Then, it must be owned, he wants courage, otherwise he would never allow himself to be cowed by the great political bully (Pitt), for whose understanding he has justly a very great contempt. I have seen him as much afraid of that overbearing Hector as ever schoolboy was of his pedagogue; and yet this Hector, I shrewdly suspect, is no more than a craven at bottom. Besides this defect, Charles has another, which he is at too little pains to hide. There’s no faith to be given to his assertions, and no trust to be put in his promises. However, to give the devil his due, he is very good-natured, and even friendly when close urged in the way of solicitation. As for principle, that’s out of the question. In a word, he’s a wit and an orator, extremely entertaining; and he shines very often at the expense of those ministers to whom he is a retainer. This is a mark of great imprudence by which he has made them all his enemies, whatever face they may put upon the matter; and sooner or later he’ll have cause to wish he had been able to keep his own counsel. I have several times cautioned him on this subject: but ’tis all preaching to the desert. His vanity runs away with his discretion.” (Humphrey Clinker.) The following clever stanzas “by a Friend,” are quoted from Belsham, v. 249:
sanctum sanctorum of this political temple. That, said Captain C——, is my friend Charles Townshend, almost the only man of parts who has any concern in the present administration. Indeed, he would have no concern at all in the matter if the ministry did not find it absolutely necessary to make use of his talents upon some particular occasions. As for the common business of the nation, it is carried on in a constant routine, by the clerks of the different offices, otherwise the wheels of Government would be wholly stopped amidst the abrupt succession of ministers, every one more ignorant than his predecessor. I am thinking what a fine hobble we should be in, if all the clerks of the Treasury, if the secretaries, the War Office, and the Admiralty, should take it into their heads to throw up their places, in imitation of the great pensioner. But to return to Charles Townshend; he certainly knows more than all the Ministry and all the Opposition, if their heads were laid together, and talks like an angel on a vast variety of subjects. He would be really a great man, if he had any consistency or stability of character. Then, it must be owned, he wants courage, otherwise he would never allow himself to be cowed by the great political bully (Pitt), for whose understanding he has justly a very great contempt. I have seen him as much afraid of that overbearing Hector as ever schoolboy was of his pedagogue; and yet this Hector, I shrewdly suspect, is no more than a craven at bottom. Besides this defect, Charles has another, which he is at too little pains to hide. There’s no faith to be given to his assertions, and no trust to be put in his promises. However, to give the devil his due, he is very good-natured, and even friendly when close urged in the way of solicitation. As for principle, that’s out of the question. In a word, he’s a wit and an orator, extremely entertaining; and he shines very often at the expense of those ministers to whom he is a retainer. This is a mark of great imprudence by which he has made them all his enemies, whatever face they may put upon the matter; and sooner or later he’ll have cause to wish he had been able to keep his own counsel. I have several times cautioned him on this subject: but ’tis all preaching to the desert. His vanity runs away with his discretion.” (Humphrey Clinker.) The following clever stanzas “by a Friend,” are quoted from Belsham, v. 249:
Behold that ship in all her pride,
Her bosom swelling to the tide,[302] Alas, dear Charles! she cheats the sight,
Though all appears so fair and tight,
Her bosom swelling to the tide,
Each curious eye delighting:
With colours flying, sails unfurl’d,
From head to stern she’ll match the world
For sailing or for fighting.
Though all appears so fair and tight,
For sea so trim and ready;
Each breeze will toss her to and fro,
Nor must she dare to face the foe
Till BALLAST makes her steady.
On Townshend’s celebrated “Champagne Speech,” see Walpole, vol. iii, p. 25, and Lord Stanhope’s History, v. 272: “full of wit, comedy, quotation, &c., but not a syllable to the purpose. Upon this speech he had meditated a great while, and it only found utterance by accident on that particular day!”
L. 23.hit the House just between wind and water. Fr.
entre deux eaux. When a ship heels over to leeward a part of her
bottom (that portion of the keel which is usually below the water-line), is uncovered. An attacking enemy bearing down on the wind naturally aims at this strip along her side, which is “between wind and water.”
entre deux eaux. When a ship heels over to leeward a part of her
bottom (that portion of the keel which is usually below the water-line), is uncovered. An attacking enemy bearing down on the wind naturally aims at this strip along her side, which is “between wind and water.”
L. 24.not being troubled with too anxious a zeal. Villemain, in his Souvenirs, quotes Talleyrand on this point: “Talleyrand dit, ‘Il faut en politique, comme ailleurs, ne pas engager tout son coeur, ne pas trop aimer; cela embrouille, cela nuit à la clarté des vues, et n’est pas toujours compté à bien. Cette excessive préoccupation d’autrui, ce dévouement qui s’oublie trop soi-même, nuit souvent à l’objet aimé, et toujours à l’objet aimant qu’il rend moins mésuré, moins adroit, et même moins persuasif.’ “;
L. 28.He conformed exactly to the temper of the House.Cp. infra, p. 211, “He was truly the child of the House,” &c. Cp. Chesterfield, Character of Walpole: “He saw as by intuition the disposition of the House, and pressed or receded accordingly.” Lord Dalling, Character of Canning: “At last, when he himself spoke, he seemed to a large part of his audience to be merely giving a striking form to their own thoughts.”
L. 36.the sole cause of all the public measures. Further than this, Burke thought with Guicciardini that “any general temper in a nation” might always be traced to a few individuals. Letter to Rockingham, Aug. 23, 1775. “As well may we fancy,” he writes in the First Letter on a Regicide Peace, “that of itself the sea will swell, and that without winds the billows will insult the adverse shore, as that the gross mass of the people will be moved, and elevated, and continue by a steady and permanent direction to bear upon one point, without the influence of superior authority, or superior mind.” “It is the Few, which commonly give the turn to Affairs,” Guicc. Maxim 83. Cp. Gordon’s Discourses on Tacitus, ix, II.
P. 209, L. 15.passion for fame; a passion, &c. Cp. in the description of
[303] the trial of Hastings, in Erskine’s Speech for Stockdale, “the love of fame, which is the inherent passion of genius.”
L. 29.whole line of the great and masculine virtues. Cp. Speech on the Econ. Reform, near beginning; “Indeed, the whole class of the severe and restrictive virtues are at a market almost too high for humanity. What is worse, there are very few of these virtues which are not capable of being imitated, and even outdone, by the worst of vices. Malignity and envy will carve much more deeply, and finish much more sharply, than frugality and prudence.”
P. 210, L. 3.Things and the disposition of men’s minds were changed. The opinion of most politicians was expressed in the application of a witty remark of Townshend on a former administration to the Rockingham ministry at the outset of its career, July 1765, as a ”
lutestring ministry; fit only for the summer,” but he seems to have lent them an unconfiding support. Cp. Churchill, The Ghost, Book iv:
lutestring ministry; fit only for the summer,” but he seems to have lent them an unconfiding support. Cp. Churchill, The Ghost, Book iv:
A slight shot silk, for summer wear,
Just as our modern Statesmen are,
If rigid honesty permit
That I for once purloin the wit
Of him, who, were we all to steal,
Is much too rich the theft to feel.
Just as our modern Statesmen are,
If rigid honesty permit
That I for once purloin the wit
Of him, who, were we all to steal,
Is much too rich the theft to feel.
Macaulay errs in assigning the origin of the
bon-mot to this particular occasion.
L. 7.resolutions leading to the Repeal. These Resolutions embraced also the principle of the Declaratory Act, without which it is not probable that Townshend would have supported them. The inconsiderate strictures of Lord Campbell (
Lives of the Chancellors, Camden) on the exceeding “folly of accompanying the Repeal of the Stamp Act with the statutable declaration of the abstract right to tax,” are amply refuted by this Speech (see pp. 217-18). Macaulay is more just. “The Stamp Act was indefensible, not because it was beyond the constitutional competence of Parliament, but because it was unjust and impolitic, sterile of revenue, and fertile of discontents.”
Lives of the Chancellors, Camden) on the exceeding “folly of accompanying the Repeal of the Stamp Act with the statutable declaration of the abstract right to tax,” are amply refuted by this Speech (see pp. 217-18). Macaulay is more just. “The Stamp Act was indefensible, not because it was beyond the constitutional competence of Parliament, but because it was unjust and impolitic, sterile of revenue, and fertile of discontents.”
L. 9.if an illness, (not, as was then given out, a political, but… a very real illness). Cp. the newspaper quotation in Chesterfield’s Letters, vol. iv. p. 404: “We hear that the Right Hon. Mr. Charles Townshend is indisposed, at his house in Oxfordshire, of a pain in his side: but it is not said
in which side.“
in which side.“
L. 24.then Chancellor of the Exchequer, found himself in great straits.[304] Townshend had laughed at the weakness of the Rockingham ministry, but his own “tessellated” ministry was the first since the Revolution to endure the disgrace of being defeated on a Money Bill. Dowdeswell, his predecessor in the Exchequer, moved an amendment to the four-shilling Land Tax, and defeated him by 206 to 118. Rock. Mem., vol. ii. p. 34. It was the loss on the Land Tax of a shilling in the pound that his American taxes were intended partly to supply. Walpole, iii. 28.
P. 211, L. 1.to counterwork. Properly a military term, meaning to raise works in opposition to those of the enemy. Pope, Ess. on Man, ii. 239:
That counterworks each folly and caprice.
L. 16.a race of men, &c. The class known in Parliamentary slang as “outsiders,” “loose fish,” &c. Or, by the transfer of an epithet formerly appropriated to electors, “independent” members. An “independent” member has been described as one who can never be depended on. Such men have naturally ever been unpopular with the organizers of parties.
P. 212, L. 20.on a former occasion. In moving his eight resolutions relating to the disorders in North America, May 8, 1770.
L. 22.After all these changes and agitations. The remarks of Professor Goodrich (see note to p. 178) might be repeated here. The speech is here summed up with great force and perspicuity. The peroration, “If you do not fall in, &c.” which immediately follows, continues this style, in arguments of a more general character. Of these arguments Mr. Hazlitt says, they are “so sensible, so moderate, so wise and beautiful, that I cannot resist the temptation of copying them out, though I did not at first intend it.” Eloq. of the British Senate, vol. ii. p. 293. This peroration is a brilliant specimen of direct appeal. It unites, like the Theseus, the grace of the Apollo with the strength of the Hercules. Vehemently as the power is exerted, it is done so easily and temperately, as to suggest an infinite fund in store. The words are eloquent, but the eloquence appears to reside not in them, but in the subject.
P. 213, L. 24.reason not at all. Burke may have had in mind the impressive phrase of the Gospel, “Swear not at all.”
L. 28.On this solid basis. Alluding to the
d&ogrgr;ς
po&uivrgr;
st&ohivrgr; of Archimedes, to which Burke often appears to have had recourse as an illustration in his parliamentary speeches. It must have been after some such passage as this that Lord John Townshend exclaimed aloud,
Heavens! what a man this is! Where could he acquire such transcendent powers?
d&ogrgr;ς
po&uivrgr;
st&ohivrgr; of Archimedes, to which Burke often appears to have had recourse as an illustration in his parliamentary speeches. It must have been after some such passage as this that Lord John Townshend exclaimed aloud,
Heavens! what a man this is! Where could he acquire such transcendent powers?
kribod&iacgr;
kaion. The origin of the maxim
Summum jus summa injuria is lost in antiquity. “That over-perfect kind of justice which has obtained, by its merits, the title of the opposite vice.” Speech on Econ. Reform. Cp. Aristotle, Ethics, lib. v. Macaulay compares the Stamp Act with Acts of Attainder and Confiscation. “Parliament was legally competent to tax America, as Parliament was legally competent to confiscate the property of all the merchants in Lombard Street, or to attaint any man of high treason, without examining witnesses against him, or hearing him in his own defence.” “There is no worse torture than the torture of laws.” Bacon, Essay of Judicature.
L. 23.destroying angel. I Chron. xxi. 12.
Cp. vol. ii. p. 138. “The hand that like a destroying angel,” &c.
Cp. vol. ii. p. 138. “The hand that like a destroying angel,” &c.
P. 215, L. 7.Seek peace and ensue it. A favourite quotation of Burke’s. Ps. xxxiv. 14.
L. 11.metaphysical distinctions; I hate the very sound of them. Burke, says Bentham, had good cause to hate metaphysics; “The power he trusted to was
oratory, rhetoric, the art of misrepresentation, the art of misdirecting the judgment by agitating and inflaming the passions,” Works, x. 510. Others have accused him of metaphysical subtleties. “Thus was this great man,” says Hazlitt, “merely for disclaiming metaphysical distinctions, and shewing their inapplicability to practical questions, considered as an unintelligible reasoner; as if you were chargeable with the very folly of which you convict others. Burke understood metaphysics, and saw their true boundaries. When he saw others venturing blindly on this treacherous ground, and called out to them to stop, shewing them where they were, they said, ‘This man is a metaphysician!’ General, unqualified assertions, universal axioms, and abstract rules, serve to embody our prejudices. They are the watch-words of party, the strong-holds of the passions. It is therefore dangerous to meddle with them! Solid reason means nothing more than being carried away by our passions, and solid sense is that which requires no reflection to understand it!” Eloq. of Brit. Senate, vol. ii. p. 297.
oratory, rhetoric, the art of misrepresentation, the art of misdirecting the judgment by agitating and inflaming the passions,” Works, x. 510. Others have accused him of metaphysical subtleties. “Thus was this great man,” says Hazlitt, “merely for disclaiming metaphysical distinctions, and shewing their inapplicability to practical questions, considered as an unintelligible reasoner; as if you were chargeable with the very folly of which you convict others. Burke understood metaphysics, and saw their true boundaries. When he saw others venturing blindly on this treacherous ground, and called out to them to stop, shewing them where they were, they said, ‘This man is a metaphysician!’ General, unqualified assertions, universal axioms, and abstract rules, serve to embody our prejudices. They are the watch-words of party, the strong-holds of the passions. It is therefore dangerous to meddle with them! Solid reason means nothing more than being carried away by our passions, and solid sense is that which requires no reflection to understand it!” Eloq. of Brit. Senate, vol. ii. p. 297.
L. 32.Nobody will be argued into slavery. “Which government the English have best preserv’d, being a Nation too tenacious of their Libertys to be complemented out of ’em,” &c. Tindal, Essay Concerning Obedience, ch. 2. Burke’s happy expression reminds us of the equally happy phrase of Sherlock, “Never a man was reasoned out of his religion.”
P. 216, L. 10.a noble Lord, who spoke. Lord Carmarthen.
P. 217, L. 19. Burke begins by personifying Great Britain in the feminine gender, which is common enough; but he goes on to do the same with Parliament, which seems a little ludicrous.
P. 218, L. 10.stress of the draft. The image is from draught-horses.
P. 219, L. 2.Sir William Temple says, that Holland, &c. “Thus this stomachful People, who could not endure the least exercise of Arbitrary Power or Impositions, or the sight of any Foreign Troops under the
Spanish Government; have been since inured to all of them in the highest degree, under their own popular magistrates: Bridled with hard Laws; Terrified with severe executions; Environed with Foreign Forces; and opprest with the most cruel Hardship and Variety of Taxes, that ever was known under any Government.” Obs. upon the United Provinces, ch. ii. “Cette nation aimerait prodigieusement sa liberté, parce que cette liberté serait vraie; et il pouvrait arriver que, pour la défendre, elle sacrifierait son bien, son aisance, ses intérêts: et qu’elle se chargerait des impôts les plus durs, et tels que le prince le plus absolu n’oserait les faire supporter à ses sujets.” De l’Esp. des Lois, xix. 27. “Règle générale: on peut lever des tributs plus forts, à proportion de la liberté des sujets; et l’on est forcé de les modérer à mesure que la servitude augmente.” Id. xii. 12.
Spanish Government; have been since inured to all of them in the highest degree, under their own popular magistrates: Bridled with hard Laws; Terrified with severe executions; Environed with Foreign Forces; and opprest with the most cruel Hardship and Variety of Taxes, that ever was known under any Government.” Obs. upon the United Provinces, ch. ii. “Cette nation aimerait prodigieusement sa liberté, parce que cette liberté serait vraie; et il pouvrait arriver que, pour la défendre, elle sacrifierait son bien, son aisance, ses intérêts: et qu’elle se chargerait des impôts les plus durs, et tels que le prince le plus absolu n’oserait les faire supporter à ses sujets.” De l’Esp. des Lois, xix. 27. “Règle générale: on peut lever des tributs plus forts, à proportion de la liberté des sujets; et l’on est forcé de les modérer à mesure que la servitude augmente.” Id. xii. 12.
P. 220, L. 8.The noble Lord
will as usual. Lord North.
will as usual. Lord North.
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Edmund Burke