intelligent and learned, we shall be always beginners. But men must
learn somewhere; and the new teachers mean no more than what they
effect, as far as they succeed,--that is, to deprive men of the benefit
of the collected wisdom of mankind, and to make them blind disciples of
their own particular presumption. Talk to these deluded creatures (all
the disciples and most of the masters) who are taught to think
themselves so newly fitted up and furnished, and you will find nothing
in their houses but the refuse of _Knaves' Acre_,--nothing but the
rotten stuff, worn out in the service of delusion and sedition in all
ages, and which, being newly furbished up, patched, and varnished,
serves well enough for those who, being unacquainted with the conflict
which has always been maintained between the sense and the nonsense of
mankind, know nothing of the former existence and the ancient
refutation of the same follies. It is near two thousand years since it
has been observed that these devices of ambition, avarice, and
turbulence were antiquated. They are, indeed, the most ancient of all
commonplaces: commonplaces sometimes of good and necessary causes; more
frequently of the worst, but which decide upon neither. _Eadem semper
causa, libido et avaritia, et mutandarum rerum amor. Ceterum libertas et
speciosa nomina pretexuntur; nec quisquam alienum servitium, et
dominationem sibi concupivit, ut non eadem ista vocabula usurparet_.
Rational and experienced men tolerably well know, and have always known,
how to distinguish between true and false liberty, and between the
genuine adherence and the false pretence to what is true. But none,
except those who are profoundly studied, can comprehend the elaborate
contrivance of a fabric fitted to unite private and public liberty with
public force, with order, with peace, with justice, and, above all, with
the institutions formed for bestowing permanence and stability, through
ages, upon this invaluable whole.
Place, for instance, before your eyes such a man as Montesquieu. Think
of a genius not born in every country or every time: a man gifted by
Nature with a penetrating, aquiline eye,--with a judgment prepared with
the most extensive erudition,--with an Herculean robustness of mind, and
nerves not to be broken with labor,--a man who could spend twenty years
in one pursuit. Think of a man like the universal patriarch in Milton
(who had drawn up before him in his prophetic vision the whole series of
the generations which were to issue from his loins): a man capable of
placing in review, after having brought together from the East, the
West, the North, and the South, from the coarseness of the rudest
barbarism to the most refined and subtle civilization, all the schemes
of government which had ever prevailed amongst mankind, weighing,
measuring, collating, and comparing them all, joining fact with theory,
and calling into council, upon all this infinite assemblage of things,
all the speculations which have fatigued the understandings of profound
reasoners in all times. Let us then consider, that all these were but so
many preparatory steps to qualify a man, and such a man, tinctured with
no national prejudice, with no domestic affection, to admire, and to
hold out to the admiration of mankind, the Constitution of England. And
shall we Englishmen revoke to such a suit? Shall we, when so much more
than he has produced remains still to be understood and admired, instead
of keeping ourselves in the schools of real science, choose for our
teachers men incapable of being taught,--whose only claim to know is,
that they have never doubted,--from whom we can learn nothing but their
own indocility,--who would teach us to scorn what in the silence of our
hearts we ought to adore?
Different from them are all the great critics. They have taught us one
essential rule. I think the excellent and philosophic artist, a true
judge, as well as a perfect follower of Nature, Sir Joshua Reynolds, has
somewhere applied it, or something like it, in his own profession. It is
this: that, if ever we should find ourselves disposed not to admire
those writers or artists (Livy and Virgil, for instance, Raphael or
Michael Angelo) whom all the learned had admired, not to follow our own
fancies, but to study them, until we know how and what we ought to
admire; and if we cannot arrive at this combination of admiration with
knowledge, rather to believe that we are dull than that the rest of the
world has been imposed on. It is as good a rule, at least, with regard
to this admired Constitution. We ought to understand it according to our
measure, and to venerate where we are not able presently to comprehend.
Such admirers were our fathers, to whom we owe this splendid
inheritance. Let us improve it with zeal, but with fear. Let us follow
our ancestors, men not without a rational, though without an exclusive
confidence in themselves,--who, by respecting the reason of others, who,
by looking backward as well as forward, by the modesty as well as by the
energy of their minds, went on insensibly drawing this Constitution
nearer and nearer to its perfection, by never departing from its
fundamental principles, nor introducing any amendment which had not a
subsisting root in the laws, Constitution, and usages of the kingdom.
Let those who have the trust of political or of natural authority ever
keep watch against the desperate enterprises of innovation: let even
their benevolence be fortified and armed. They have before their eyes
the example of a monarch insulted, degraded, confined, deposed; his
family dispersed, scattered, imprisoned; his wife insulted to his face,
like the vilest of the sex, by the vilest of all populace; himself three
times dragged by these wretches in an infamous triumph; his children
torn from him, in violation of the first right of Nature, and given into
the tuition of the most desperate and impious of the leaders of
desperate and impious clubs; his revenues dilapidated and plundered;
his magistrates murdered; his clergy proscribed, persecuted, famished;
his nobility degraded in their rank, undone in their fortunes, fugitives
in their persons; his armies corrupted and ruined; his whole people
impoverished, disunited, dissolved; whilst through the bars of his
prison, and amidst the bayonets of his keepers, he hears the tumult of
two conflicting factions, equally wicked and abandoned, who agree in
principles, in dispositions, and in objects, but who tear each other to
pieces about the most effectual means of obtaining their common end: the
one contending to preserve for a while his name, and his person, the
more easily to destroy the royal authority,--the other clamoring to cut
off the name, the person, and the monarchy together, by one sacrilegious
execution. All this accumulation of calamity, the greatest that ever
fell upon one man, has fallen upon his head, because he had left his
virtues unguarded by caution,--because he was not taught, that, where
power is concerned, he who will confer benefits must take security
against ingratitude.
I have stated the calamities which have fallen upon a great prince and
nation, because they were not alarmed at the approach of danger, and
because, what commonly happens to men surprised, they lost all resource
when they were caught in it. When I speak of danger, I certainly mean to
address myself to those who consider the prevalence of the new Whig
doctrines as an evil.
The Whigs of this day have before them, in this Appeal, their
constitutional ancestors; they have the doctors of the modern school.
They will choose for themselves. The author of the Reflections has
chosen for himself. If a new order is coming on, and all the political
opinions must pass away as dreams, which our ancestors have worshipped
as revelations, I say for him, that he would rather be the last (as
certainly he is the least) of that race of men than the first and
greatest of those who have coined to themselves Whig principles from a
French die, unknown to the impress of our fathers in the Constitution.
FOOTNOTES:
[6] Newspaper intelligence ought always to be received with some degree
of caution. I do not know that the following paragraph is founded on any
authority; but it comes with an air of authority. The paper is
professedly in the interest of the modern Whigs, and under their
direction. The paragraph is not disclaimed on their part. It professes
to be the decision of those whom its author calls "the great and firm
body of the Whigs of England." Who are the Whigs of a different
composition, which the promulgator of the sentence considers as composed
of fleeting and unsettled particles, I know not, nor whether there be
any of that description. The definitive sentence of "the great and firm
body of the Whigs of England" (as this paper gives it out) is as
follows:--
"The great and firm body of the Whigs of England, true to their
principles, have decided on the dispute between Mr. Fox and Mr. Burke;
and the former is declared to have maintained the pure doctrines by
which they are bound together, and upon which they have invariably
acted. The consequence is, that Mr. Burke retires from
Parliament."--_Morning Chronicle_, May 12, 1791.
[7] Reflections, &c., 1st ed., London, J. Dodsley, 1790.--Works, Vol.
III. p. 343, in the present edition.
[8] To explain this, it will be necessary to advert to a paragraph which
appeared in a paper in the minority interest some time before this
debate. "A very dark intrigue has lately been discovered, the authors of
which are well known to us; but until the glorious day shall come when
it will not be a LIBEL to tell the TRUTH, we must not be so regardless
of our own safety as to publish their names. We will, however, state the
fact, leaving it to the ingenuity of our readers to discover what we
dare not publish.
"Since the business of the armament against Russia has been under
discussion, a great personage has been heard to say, 'that he was not so
wedded to Mr. PITT as not to be very willing to give his confidence to
Mr. FOX, if the latter should be able, in a crisis like the present, to
conduct the government of the country with greater advantage to the
public.'
"This patriotic declaration immediately alarmed the swarm of courtly
insects that live only in the sunshine of ministerial favor. It was
thought to be the forerunner of the dismission of Mr. Pitt, and every
engine was set at work for the purpose of preventing such an event. The
principal engine employed on this occasion was CALUMNY. It was whispered
in the ear of a great personage, that Mr. Fox was the last man in
England to be trusted by a KING, because he was by PRINCIPLE a
REPUBLICAN, and consequently an enemy to MONARCHY.
"In the discussion of the Quebec Bill which stood for yesterday, it was
the intention of some persons to connect with this subject the French
Revolution, in hopes that Mr. Fox would be warmed by a collision with
Mr. Burke, and induced to defend that Revolution, in which so much power
was taken from, and so little left in the crown.
"Had Mr. Fox fallen into the snare, his speech on the occasion would
have been laid before a great personage, as a proof that a man who could
defend such a revolution might be a very good republican, but could not
possibly be a friend to monarchy.
"But those who laid the snare were disappointed; for Mr. Fox, in the
short conversation which took place yesterday in the House of Commons,
said, that he confessedly had thought favorably of the French
Revolution, but that most certainly he never had, either in Parliament
or out of Parliament, professed or defended republican
principles."--_Argus_, April 22d, 1791.
Mr. Burke cannot answer for the truth nor prove the falsehood of the
story given by the friends of the party in this paper. He only knows
that an opinion of its being well or ill authenticated had no influence
on his conduct. He meant only, to the best of his power, to guard the
public against the ill designs of factions out of doors. What Mr. Burke
did in Parliament could hardly have been intended to draw Mr. Fox into
any declarations unfavorable to his principles, since (by the account of
those who are his friends) he had long before effectually prevented the
success of any such scandalous designs. Mr. Fox's friends have
themselves done away that imputation on Mr. Burke.
[9] See his speech on American Taxation, the 19th of April, 1774.
[10] Lord Lansdowne.
[11] Mr. Windham.
[12] July 17th, 1765.
[13] Works, Vol. III. pp. 251-276, present edition.
[14] State Trials, Vol. V. p. 651.
[15] Page 676.
[16] The words necessary to the completion of the sentence are wanting
in the printed trial--but the construction of the sentence, as well as
the foregoing part of the speech, justify the insertion of some such
supplemental words as the above.
[17] "What we did was, in truth and substance, and in a constitutional
light, a revolution, not made, but prevented. We took solid securities;
we settled doubtful questions; we corrected anomalies in our law. In the
stable, fundamental parts of our Constitution we made no
revolution,--no, nor any alteration at all. We did not impair the
monarchy. Perhaps it might be shown that we strengthened it very
considerably. The nation kept the same ranks, the same orders, the same
privileges, the same franchises, the same rules for property, the same
subordinations, the same order in the law, in the revenue, and in the
magistracy,--the same lords, the same commons, the same corporations,
the same electors."--_Mr. Burke's Speech in the House of Commons, 9th
February, 1790._--It appears how exactly he coincides in everything with
Sir Joseph Jekyl.
[18] See Reflections, pp. 42, 43.--Works, Vol. III. p. 270, present
edition.
[19] Declaration of Right.
[20] Vindication of the Rights of Man, recommended by the several
societies.
[21] "Omnes omnium charitates patria una complectitur."--Cic.
[22] A few lines in Persius contain a good summary of all the objects of
moral investigation, and hint the result of our inquiry: There human
will has no place.
Quid _sumus_? et quidnam _victuri gignimur_? ordo
Quis _datus_? et _metæ_ quis mollis flexus, et unde?
Quis modus argento? Quid _fas optare_? Quid asper
Utile nummus habet? _Patriæ charisque propinquis_
Quantum elargiri _debet_? Quem te Deus esse
_Jussit_? et humana qua parte _locatus es_ in re?
[23] It is no small loss to the world, that the whole of this
enlightened and philosophic sermon, preached to _two hundred thousand_
national guards assembled at Blackheath (a number probably equal to the
sublime and majestic _Fédération_ of the 14th of July, 1790, in the
Champ de Mars) is not preserved. A short abstract is, however, to be
found in Walsingham. I have added it here for the edification of the
modern Whigs, who may possibly except this precious little fragment from
their general contempt of ancient learning.
"Ut suâ doctrinâ plures inficeret, ad le Blackheth (ubi ducenta millia
hominum communium fuere simul congregata) hujuscemodi sermonem est
exorsus.
"Whan Adam dalfe and Eve span,
Who was than a gentleman?
Continuansque sermonem inceptum, nitebatur per verba proverbii, quod pro
themate sumpserat, introducere et probare, _ab initio omnes pares
creatos a naturâ_, servitutem per injustam oppressionem nequam hominum
introductam contra Dei voluntatem, quia si Deo placuisset servos
creâsse, utique in principio mundi constituisset, quis servus, quisve
dominus futurus fuisset. Considerarent igitur jam tempus a Deo datum
eis, in quo (deposito servitutis jugo diutius) possent, si vellent,
libertate diu concupitâ gaudere. Quapropter monuit ut essent viri
cordati, et amore boni patrisfamilias excolentis agrum suum, et
extirpantis ac resecantis noxia gramina quæ fruges solent opprimere, et
ipsi in præsenti facere festinarent. Primò _majores regni dominos
occidendo. Deinde juridicos, justiciarios, et juratores patriæ
perimendo._ Postremò quoscunque scirent _in posterum communitati
nocivos_ tollerent de terrâ suâ, sic demum et _pacem_ sibimet _parerent
et securitatem_ in futurum. _Si sublatis majoribus esset inter eos æqua
libertas, eadem nobilitas, par dignitas, similisque potestas._"
Here is displayed at once the whole of the grand _arcanum_ pretended to
be found out by the National Assembly, for securing future happiness,
peace, and tranquillity. There seems, however, to be some doubt whether
this venerable protomartyr of philosophy was inclined to carry his own
declaration of the rights of men more rigidly into practice than the
National Assembly themselves. He was, like them, only preaching
licentiousness to the populace to obtain power for himself, if we may
believe what is subjoined by the historian.
"Cumque hæc et _plura alia deliramenta_" (think of this old fool's
calling all the wise maxims of the French Academy _deliramenta_!)
"prædicâsset, commune vulgus cum tanto favore prosequitur, ut
_exclamarent eum archiepiscopum futurum, et regni cancellarium_."
Whether he would have taken these situations under these names, or would
have changed the whole nomenclature of the State and Church, to be
understood in the sense of the Revolution, is not so certain. It is
probable that he would have changed the names and kept the substance of
power.
We find, too, that they had in those days their _society for
constitutional information_, of which the Reverend John Ball was a
conspicuous member, sometimes under his own name, sometimes under the
feigned name of John Schep. Besides him it consisted (as Knyghton tells
us) of persons who went by the real or fictitious names of Jack Mylner,
Tom Baker, Jack Straw, Jack Trewman, Jack Carter, and probably of many
more. Some of the choicest flowers of the publications charitably
written and circulated by them gratis are upon record in Walsingham and
Knyghton: and I am inclined to prefer the pithy and sententious brevity
of these _bulletins_ of ancient rebellion before the loose and confused
prolixity of the modern advertisements of constitutional information.
They contain more good morality and less bad politics, they had much
more foundation in real oppression, and they have the recommendation of
being much better adapted to the capacities of those for whose
instruction they were intended. Whatever laudable pains the teachers of
the present day appear to take, I cannot compliment them so far as to
allow that they have succeeded in writing down to the level of their
pupils, _the members of the sovereign_, with half the ability of Jack
Carter and the Reverend John Ball. That my readers may judge for
themselves, I shall give them, one or two specimens.
The first is an address from the Reverend John Ball, under his _nom de
guerre_ of John Schep. I know not against what particular "guyle in
borough" the writer means to caution the people; it may have been only a
general cry against "_rotten boroughs_," which it was thought
convenient, then as now, to make the first pretext, and place at the
head of the list of grievances.
JOHN SCHEP.
"Iohn Schep sometime seint Mary priest of Yorke, and now of Colchester,
greeteth well Iohn Namelesse, and Iohn the Miller, and Iohn Carter, and
_biddeth them that they beware of guyle in borough_, and stand together
in Gods name, and biddeth Piers Ploweman goe to his werke, and chastise
well _Hob the robber_, [probably the king,] and take with you Iohn
Trewman, and all his fellows, and no moe.
"Iohn the Miller hath yground smal, small, small:
The kings sonne of heauen shal pay for all.
Beware or ye be woe,
Know your frende fro your foe,
Haue ynough, and say hoe:
And do wel and better, & flee sinne,
_And seeke peace and holde you therin,_
& so biddeth Iohn Trewman & all his fellowes."
The reader has perceived, from the last lines of this curious
state-paper, how well the National Assembly has copied its union of the
profession of universal peace with the practice of murder and confusion,
and the blast of the trumpet of sedition in all nations. He will in the
following constitutional paper observe how well, in their enigmatical
style, like the Assembly and their abettors, the old philosophers
proscribe all hereditary distinction, and bestow it only on virtue and
wisdom, according to their estimation of both. Yet these people are
supposed never to have heard of "the rights of man"!
JACK MYLNER.
"Jakke Mylner asket help to turne his mylne aright.
"He hath grounden smal smal,
The Kings sone of heven he schal pay for alle.
Loke thy mylne go a rygt, with the fours sayles, and the post stande in
steadfastnesse.
"With rygt and with mygt,
With skyl and with wylle,
Lat mygt helpe rygt,
And skyl go before wille,
And rygt before mygt:
Than goth oure mylne aryght.
And if mygt go before ryght,
And wylle before skylle;
Than is oure mylne mys a dygt."
JACK CARTER understood perfectly the doctrine of looking to the _end_,
with an indifference to the _means_, and the probability of much good
arising from great evil.
"Jakke Carter pryes yowe alle that ye make a gode _ende_ of that ye hane
begunnen, and doth wele and ay bettur and bettur: for at the even men
heryth the day. _For if the ende be wele, than is alle wele._ Lat Peres
the Plowman my brother duelle at home and dygt us corne, and I will go
with yowe and helpe that y may to dygte youre mete and youre drynke,
that ye none fayle: lokke that Hobbe robbyoure be wele chastysed for
lesyng of youre grace: for ye have gret nede to take God with yowe in
alle yours dedes. For nowe is tyme to be war."
[24] See the wise remark on this subject in the Defence of Rights of
Man, circulated by the societies.
[25] The primary assemblies.
A
LETTER
TO
A PEER OF IRELAND
ON THE
PENAL LAWS AGAINST IRISH CATHOLICS,
PREVIOUS TO
THE LATE REPEAL OF A PART THEREOF IN THE SESSION OF THE IRISH
PARLIAMENT, HELD A.D. 1782.
CHARLES STREET, LONDON, Feb. 21, 1782
My Lord,--I am obliged to your Lordship for your communication of the
heads of Mr. Gardiner's bill. I had received it, in an earlier stage of
its progress, from Mr. Braughall; and I am still in that gentleman's
debt, as I have not made him the proper return for the favor he has done
me. Business, to which I was more immediately called, and in which my
sentiments had the weight of one vote, occupied me every moment since I
received his letter. This first morning which I can call my own I give
with great cheerfulness to the subject on which your Lordship has done
me the honor of desiring my opinion.
I have read the heads of the bill, with the amendments. Your Lordship is
too well acquainted with men, and with affairs, to imagine that any true
judgment can be formed on the value of a great measure of policy from
the perusal of a piece of paper. At present I am much in the dark with
regard to the state of the country which the intended law is to be
applied to. It is not easy for me to determine whether or no it was wise
(for the sake of expunging the black letter of laws which, menacing as
they were in the language, were every day fading into disuse) solemnly
to reaffirm the principles and to reenact the provisions of a code of
statutes by which you are totally excluded from THE PRIVILEGES OF THE
COMMONWEALTH, from the highest to the lowest, from the most material of
the civil professions, from the army, and even from education, where
alone education is to be had.[26]