NOTE 1, p. 8.—Ever since the Norman Conquest the royal assent to
measures of Parliament has been given in a form from which there has
been no variation. To “public bills” the words attached are “_le roy
le veult_”; to petitions, “_soit droit fait comme il est désiré_”; and
for grants of money, “_the King heartily thanks his subjects for their
good wills_.” In the present instance, instead of _soit droit fait
comme il est désiré_, the King caused to be appended to the petition,
“The King willeth that right be done according to the laws and customs
of the realm; that the statutes be put into due execution; and that
his subjects may have no cause to complain of any wrong or oppressions
contrary to their just rights and liberties, to the preservation
whereof he holds himself in conscience as well obliged, as of his own
prerogative.”—Rushworth, i., 588. On the forms of royal assent see the
learned account by Selden in “Parliamentary History,” viii., 237.
NOTE 2, p. 9.—Rushworth, i., 591. The version of Eliot’s speech given
by Rushworth is the one ordinarily reprinted in modern collections.
But in the papers of the Earl of St. Germans, a descendant of Sir John
Eliot, Mr. John Forster, some years ago, found a copy of the speech
corrected by Eliot himself while in prison. This form, much superior to
the others, is the one here reproduced.
NOTE 3, p. 16.—Eliot, in the expression, “want of councils,”
doubtless alludes to the absorption of the various powers of the
State by Buckingham. The allusion was not without reason, as the
list of Buckingham’s titles shows. He was: Duke, Marquis, and
Earl of Buckingham, Earl of Coventry, Viscount Villiers, Baron
of Whaddon, Great Admiral of England and Ireland, etc., etc.,
etc., Governor-General of the Seas and the Ships of the same,
Lieutenant-General Admiral, Captain-General and Governor of his
Majesty’s fleet and army, etc., Minister of the House, Lord Warden,
Chancellor, and Admiral of the Cinque Ports, etc., Constable of Dover
Castle, Justice in Eyrie of the Forest of Chases on this side of the
Trent, Constable of the Castle of Windsor, Gentleman of the Bedchamber,
Knight of the Garter, Privy Councillor, etc. The royal domains that
he had managed to have given to him brought an income of £284,395 a
year. All this was so much drawn from the public treasury. See Bradie’s
“Constitutional History,” new edition, vol. i., p. 424, and Guizot,
“Charles I.,” Bohn’s ed., p. 15.
NOTE 4, p. 17.—The Elector Palatine, Frederick V., had married
Elizabeth, the daughter of James I., of England, and by his election
as King of Bohemia, became in a certain sense the representative and
head of the Protestant party in Germany at the outbreak of the Thirty
Years’ War in 1618. His cause was badly managed at home, and still
more wretchedly managed in England. Constantly deluded with hopes of
support from the great Protestant power in the North, he was doomed to
perpetual disappointment. His cause was shattered at the first serious
conflict at White Mountain in 1620, and he was obliged to flee to
Holland for his life. Twelve thousand English troops were subsequently
sent to the support of Mansfeldt, but they were so ill managed that
they nearly all perished before they could be of any assistance. The
sacrifice of “honor” and of “men” was most abundant.
NOTE 5, p. 17.—In 1627 Richelieu was engaged in the work of reducing
La Rochelle, the stronghold of the Huguenots, into subordination to
the King of France. The work had to be done by means of a siege, which
included the construction of a dyke across the mouth of the harbor.
Buckingham, inflamed with resentment against Richelieu, for personal
reasons, determined to relieve the Rochellois. He collected a hundred
ships and seven thousand land forces, and advanced to the rescue. But
on reaching the scene of action, instead of advancing immediately to
relieve the beleaguered city, he disembarked on the Isle of Rhée,
and contented himself with issuing a proclamation, calling upon all
French Protestants to arise for a relief of their brethren. The result
was two-fold. In the first place, La Rochelle, after one of the most
memorable sieges in all history, was reduced; and, secondly, the cause
of Protestantism in France was completely crushed. In response to
Buckingham’s call, the Protestants everywhere arose; but Richelieu was
now at leisure to destroy them, and thus their last hope perished.
NOTE 6, p. 17.—The beauty of this allusion to the policy and the power
of Queen Elizabeth has very justly been greatly admired. Nothing could
have been more adroit than Eliot’s comparison of the ways of Elizabeth
with those of Buckingham.
NOTE 7, p. 20.—Having now come to the third division of his subject,
“The insufficiency of our generals,” Eliot naturally pauses before
dragging Buckingham personally upon the scene. But for what follows the
Duke was personally responsible.
NOTE 8, p. 21.—In 1625 an expedition of eighty sail had been fitted
out for the purpose of intercepting the Spanish treasure ships from
America. But by reason of the incompetency of the commander there was
no concert of action in the fleet, and the treasure ships escaped,
though seven of them that would have richly repaid the expedition might
easily have been taken. But not wishing to return empty handed, the
commander effected a landing near Cadiz. The soldiers broke open the
wine-cellars and became so drunk that when the commander determined to
withdraw, several hundred were left to perish under the knives of the
peasants.
NOTE 9, p. 24.—What the orator contemptuously calls the “journey
to Algiers,” was nothing less than an expedition sent out for its
conquest. But it fared like the most of Buckingham’s other “journeys.”
The Algerines turned upon the English; and thirty-five ships engaged
in the Mediterranean trade were destroyed, and their crews sold into
slavery.
NOTE 10, p. 43.—For powers and privileges of the early English
Parliaments, see Stubbs, ii., §§ 220–233, and 271–298. Also on the
right of Parliament to make a grant depend on redress of grievances,
Hallam: “Mid. Ages,” Am. ed., iii., p. 84, _seq._ It is a curious fact
that in the Early Middle Ages there was a very general reluctance on
the part of towns to send representatives. Hallam: “Mid. Ages,” iii.,
111. Cox: “Ant. Parl. Elections,” 84, 93, 98. Todd: “Parl. Govt.,” ii.,
21. Hearn: “Govt. in Eng.,” 394–407.
NOTE 11, p. 43.—Bagehot, in his remarkable work on the English
Constitution (p. 133) lays much stress on what he calls “the teaching”
and “informing” functions of the House of Commons. “In old times one
office of the House of Commons was to inform the Sovereign what was
wrong.”
NOTE 12, p. 45.—There is a remarkable letter written by Thomas Allured,
a member of the Parliament of 1628, which describes what took place
on the day alluded to. The letter is preserved in Rushworth’s Hist.,
Coll. i., 609–10, and in part is reproduced in Carlyle’s Cromwell, i.,
46. After saying that “Upon Tuesday, Sir John Eliot moved that as we
intended to furnish his Majesty with money, we should also supply him
with counsel,” he says: “But next day, Wednesday, we had a message
from his Majesty, by the Speaker ‘that we should husband the time
and despatch our old business without entertaining new.’ Yesterday,
Thursday morning, a new message was brought us, which I have here
inclosed, which, requiring us not to cast or lay any aspersion on
any Minister of his Majesty, the House was much affected thereby.
Sir Robert Philips, of Somershire, spoke and mingled his words with
weeping. Mr. Pym did the like. Sir Edward Cook, overcome with passion,
seeing the desolation likely to ensue, was forced to sit down, when he
began to speak, by abundance of tears. Yea, the Speaker in his speech
could not refrain from weeping and shedding of tears, besides a great
many others whose grief made them dumb. But others bore up in that
storm and encouraged the rest.” The writer then states how the House
resolved itself into a Committee, how the Speaker who was in close
communication with the King, asked for leave to withdraw for half an
hour, and how “It was ordered that no other man leave the House on pain
of going to the Tower.” He then continues: “Sir Edward Cook told us
‘He now saw God had not accepted of our humble and moderate carriages
and fair proceedings; and he feared the reason was, we had not dealt
sincerely with the King and country, and made a true representation
of all these miseries, which he, for his part, repented that he had
not done sooner. And, therefore, not knowing whether he should ever
again speak in this House, he would now do it freely; and so did here
protest, that the author and cause of all these miseries was the DUKE
OF BUCKINGHAM,’ which was entertained and answered with a cheerful
acclamation of the House. As when one good hound recovers the scent,
the rest come in with full cry, so they pursued it, and every one came
home, and laid the blame where he thought the fault was. And as we
were putting it to the question whether he should be _named_ in our
_Remonstrance_, as the chief cause of all our miseries at home and
abroad, the Speaker having been, not half an hour, but three hours
absent, and with the King, returned, bringing this message: ‘That the
House should then rise, adjourn till the morrow morning, no Committee
sit or other business go on in the interim.’ What we expect this
morning, God in heaven knows! We shall meet betimes this morning,
partly for the business’ sake, and partly because two days ago we made
an order, that whoever comes in after Prayers shall pay twelve pence to
the poor.”
The events alluded to by Pym in this rapid indictment are all given in
considerable detail in “Parl. Hist.,” ii., 442–525. On the 2d of March,
when Eliot moved a new Remonstrance, the Speaker refused to put the
motion, alleging an order from the King. The House insisted, whereupon
he was about to leave the Chair. Holles, Valentine, and some others
forced him back into it. “God’s wounds,” said Holles, “you shall sit
till it please the House to rise.” And much else of a similar nature.
“Parl. Hist.,” ii., 487–491.
NOTE 13, p. 47.—The moderation of Pym in this part of his speech will
appear evident to every one at all familiar with the course of events
under the influence of Laud. A brief but excellent account of the
influence of that prelate’s policy is given by Guizot, _Eng. Rev._,
Bohn ed., pp. 49–59.
NOTE 14, p. 50.—The particular privileges here enumerated were
all contrary to the statute passed in the reign of Elizabeth. The
significance of the tolerance of Catholics was chiefly in the fact that
during the same time the _Protestant_ Nonconformist was subjected to
every indignity for refusing to bow his conscience to the prescribed
formula of doctrine and ceremony. Laud’s favor toward the Catholics was
so marked that the Pope offered him a Cardinal’s hat. Laud’s “Diary,”
p. 49.
NOTE 15, p. 51.—The most notorious cases were Dr. Montague and Dr.
Mainwaring, who both received rich benefices and afterwards became
Catholics. A daughter of the Duke of Devonshire entered the Catholic
Church. When Laud asked for her reasons she responded: “I hate to be
in a crowd, and as I perceive your Grace and many others are hastening
toward Rome, I want to get there comfortably by myself before you.”
NOTE 16, p. 52.—The Crown and the Archbishop regarded Sunday “simply
as one of the holidays of the Church,” and encouraged the people in
pastimes and recreations. A “Book of Sports” had been issued in the
time of James I., pointing out the amusements the people might properly
indulge in. Laud now ordered that every minister should read the
declaration in favor of Sunday pastimes from the pulpit. Some refused.
One had the wit to obey, and to close his reading with the declaration:
“You have heard read, good people, both the commandment of God and the
commandment of man. Obey which you please.” As the result of disobeying
the command, however, many were silenced or deposed. In the diocese of
Norwich alone, thirty clergymen were expelled from their cures. See
Green: “Hist. of Eng. Peo.,” Eng. ed., iii., 160.
NOTE 17, p. 54.—Of this part of Pym’s speech Mr. Forster says: “A more
massive document was never given to history. It has all the solidity,
weight, and gravity of a judicial record, while it addresses itself
equally to the solid good sense of the masses of the people, and to
the cultivated understandings of the time. The deliberative gravity,
the force, the broad, decided manner of this great speaker, contrast
forcibly with those choice specimens of awkward affectations and
labored extravagances, that have not seldom passed in modern times for
oratory.” “Life of Pym,” p. 99.
NOTE 18, p. 58.—The seventh and twelfth of James I. were 1610 and 1615.
NOTE 19, p. 58.—The Thirty Years’ War in the Palatinate in which the
sons-in-law of James I. were the representative of the Protestant cause.
NOTE 20, p. 62.—A partial list of fines imposed between 1629 and 1640
is given in Guizot, _Eng. Rev._, 445. The list includes “Hillyard, for
having sold saltpetre, £5,000”; “John Averman, for not having followed
the King’s orders in the fabrication of soap, £13,000”; “Morley, for
having struck Sir George Thesbold within the precinct of the Court,
£10,000”; and a vast number of other similar ones.
NOTE 21, p. 64.—The tax known as ship money, which had its origin in
the necessity of universal defence when the country was threatened with
invasion was attempted by Charles but resisted by John Hampden. The
case went to trial, and the judges by a bare majority decided in favor
of the legality of the tax. The decision is, however, not now regarded
as having been correct. The case is reviewed in Hallam, “Con. Hist.,”
i., 430.
NOTE 22, p. 65.—The “bounds and perambulations” were the boundary
marks and legally established roads and paths. This was at a time when
there were very few, if any, inclosures. The possibilities of dispute
were taken advantage of by the Government in a way that was enormously
oppressive. For example, the Earl of Salisbury was fined £20,000 for
“encroachments,” Westmorland £19,000, etc. Guizot: _Eng. Rev._, 445.
NOTE 23, p. 68.—The application of this grievance was particularly
burdensome in the vicinity of London. Exemption from demolition was
purchased by the immediate payment of fine amounting to a three years’
tax.
NOTE 24, p. 69.—The King had specifically agreed in the “Petition
of Right” to correct the grievance here complained of. And yet it
continued after eleven years to be “a growing evil.”
NOTE 25, p. 72.—The “projectors” referred to were those undertaking
monopolies. The “referees” were law officers appointed by the Crown
to decide all legal questions arising in regard to monopolies. In
1621 Buckingham threw the blame of all irregularities in the matter
of monopolies on the “referees,” and, on motion of Cranfield, a
Parliamentary inquiry was made into their conduct. The matter is
explained in Gardiner’s “History of England,” 2d ed., iv., 48; and in
Church’s “Bacon,” 128.
NOTE 26, p. 82.—The reader who has followed this speech so far
certainly will not be surprised that Pym at length experienced some
“confusion of memory.” The “opportunity” was never afforded, as
parliament was dissolved within three days.
NOTE 27, p. 100.—The reference here is to Lord Bute, whose influence
with the King had secured the overthrow of Pitt’s ministry in
1761. Bute was a politician whose chief power was in his gifts for
intrigue. Though for these very qualities he was liked by the King,
he was detested by the people,—as Macaulay says,—“by many as a Tory,
by many as a favorite, and by many as a Scot.” For a long time it
was not prudent for him to appear in the streets without disguising
himself. The populace were in the habit of representing him by “a
jackboot, generally accompanied by a petticoat.” This they paraded as a
contemptuous pun on his name, and ended by fastening it on the gallows
or committing it to the flames. Pitt had been charged with prejudice
against Bute on account of his being a Scotchman. It was to refute
this charge that he alludes to his having been the first to employ the
Scotch Highlanders.
NOTE 28, p. 104.—This whole passage may well be compared with that on
the same subject in Lord Mansfield’s speech on p. 150. Compare also the
argument of Burke on American Taxation.
NOTE 29, p. 105.—This is believed to be the first reference made in
Parliament to the necessity of legislative reform. The younger Pitt
advocated a reform during the early years of his career; but the
horrors of the French Revolution so shocked public opinion, that no
change for the better could be made until the Ministry of Earl Grey in
1832.
NOTE 30, p. 110.—It was not until the reign of Henry VIII. that the
right of representation in Parliament was extended to Wales, and the
counties of Chester and Monmouth. To the county of Durham the right was
not given till 1673. Until these counties were represented, they were
not directly taxed except for purely local purposes.
NOTE 31, p. 114.—One of the speakers, Mr. Nugent, had said that “a
pepper-corn, in acknowledgment of the right to tax America, was of more
value than millions without it.”
NOTE 32, p. 126.—The capitulation of Burgoyne’s army took place October
17, 1777, just one month before the delivery of Chatham’s speech. There
was still much doubt in England in regard to the magnitude of the
disaster.
NOTE 33, p. 132.—Negotiations had been going on between the colonies
and France for more than a year, though this fact, of course, was not
known in England. Silas Deane had been appointed Commissioner to France
even before the Declaration of Independence. In Nov. of 1776, Lee and
Franklin were appointed by Congress to negotiate a treaty of friendship
and commerce with the French king. But the French were wary of
alliance, though they were willing to wink at the secret arrangements
by which supplies were furnished by Beaumarchais. These supplies,
furnished in the autumn of 1777, were detained, and did not reach
America in time to prevent the terrible sufferings at Valley Forge in
the following winter. When news of Burgoyne’s surrender reached France,
the French Government no longer hesitated, and a final treaty by which
France acknowledged the Independence of the United States was signed on
the 6th of February, 1778. For most interesting and authentic details,
see Parton’s “Life of Franklin,” vol. ii., ch. vii.
NOTE 34, p. 140.—The walls of the old room in which the House of Lords
assembled were covered with tapestries, one of which represented the
English fleet led out to conflict with the Spanish Armada by Lord
Effingham Howard, an ancestor of Lord Suffolk.
NOTE 35, p. 160.—This argument of Mansfield drawn from the Navigation
Acts is fully refuted by Burke in his speech on “American Taxation.”
Burke takes the ground that none of these acts were passed for the sake
of revenue, but that all of them were designed simply to give direction
to trade. He also shows that there is a marked distinction between
_external_ and _internal_ taxation. The whole of Burke’s speech may
well be read with profit in connection with that of Mansfield.
NOTE 36, p. 164.—This reference is probably to James Otis’ volume
published in London in 1765, entitled: “The Rights of the Colonies
Asserted and Proved.” It had previously been published in Boston, after
having been read in MS. in the Massachusetts House of Representatives.
The instructions of May, 1764, contained in the appendix were drawn
up by Samuel Adams. It is possible, however, that the orator referred
to Otis’ “Vindication of the Conduct of the House of Representatives
of the Province of Mass. Bay,” which had appeared in 1762, and which
contained in a nutshell the whole American cause. John Adams said of
it: “Look over the Declarations of Rights and Wrongs issued by Congress
in 1774; look into the Declaration of Independence of 1776; look into
the writings of Dr. Price and Dr. Priestley. Look into all the French
Constitutions of Government; and, to cap the climax, look into Mr.
Thomas Paine’s ‘Common Sense,’ ‘Crisis,’ and ‘Rights of Man,’ and
what can you find that is not to be found in this Vindication of the
House of Representatives?” During the same year also, Otis published
“A Vindication of the British Colonies,” and “Considerations on behalf
of the Colonists, in a letter to a Noble Lord.” The London reprint of
the “Vindication of the British Colonies” was accompanied with the
statement: “This tract is republished, _not for any excellence of the
work, but for the eminence of the author_.” We see here the leader in
the American disputes declaring the universal opinion of the Colonies
against the authority of the British Parliament.
NOTE 37, p. 185.—This exordium is almost bad enough to justify
Hazlitt’s remark: “Most of his speeches have a sort of parliamentary
preamble to them; there is an air of affected modesty and ostentatious
trifling in them; he seems fond of coquetting with the House of
Commons, and is perpetually calling the Speaker out to dance a minuet
with him before he begins.”
NOTE 38, p. 185.—This was an Act to restrain the Commerce of the
Provinces of New England, and to confine it to Great Britain, Ireland,
and the British West Indies.
NOTE 39, p. 187.—Reference is made to the Repeal of the Stamp Act,
which took place in Rockingham’s Administration by a vote of 275 to 161.
NOTE 40, p. 189.—This rather striking thought was firmly implanted in
Burke’s mind. In his paper on “Present Discontent,” he apologized for
“stepping a little out of the ordinary sphere” of private people. In
one of his letters he says: “We live in a nation where, at present,
there is scarce a single head that does not teem with politics. Every
man has contrived a scheme of government for the benefit of his
fellow-subjects.”
NOTE 41, p. 191.—It must be confessed this is a little pompous.
Burke’s scheme was simply to yield to the colonies what they claimed,
and it was not good policy to pronounce such an encomium on it in
advance. There were those who said: “On this simple principle of
granting every thing required, and stipulating for nothing in return,
we can terminate every difference throughout the world.”
NOTE 42, p. 191.—The Congress of Philadelphia in 1774 declared that
after the Repeal of the Stamp Act the colonies “fell into their ancient
state of unsuspecting confidence in the mother country.” Burke comments
on this statement in his letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol in 1777.
NOTE 43, p. 192.—Lord North’s plan of conciliation, already described
in the introduction to this speech.
NOTE 44, p. 193.—The address to the King declaring that rebellion
existed in Massachusetts, requesting the King to take energetic
measures to suppress it, and pledging the coöperation of Parliament.
NOTE 45, p. 196.—The computation carefully made by Mr. Bancroft
(“Hist.,” 8vo ed., vol. iv., p. 128) more than justifies Burke’s
figures. Bancroft gives the following:
-----+-----------+---------+----------
| White. | Black. | Total.
-----+-----------+---------+----------
1750 | 1,040,000 | 220,000 | 1,260,000
1754 | 1,165,000 | 260,000 | 1,425,000
1760 | 1,385,000 | 310,000 | 1,695,000
1770 | 1,850,000 | 462,000 | 2,312,000
1780 | 2,383,000 | 562,000 | 2,945,000
1790 | 3,177,257 | 752,069 | 3,927,326
-----+-----------+---------+----------
See Johnson’s “Taxation no Tyranny” (Works, x., 96) in which he
savagely speaks of “3,000,000 Whigs, fierce for liberty, which multiply
with the fecundity of their own rattlesnakes.” He thought the eggs
should be destroyed.
NOTE 46, p. 197.—Reference to the legal maxim, “_De minimis non jurat
lex_.”
NOTE 47, p. 198.—Mr. Glover who appeared at the bar to support a
petition of the West Indian planters praying that peace might be
concluded with the colonies.
NOTE 48, p. 199.—Davenant afterward published a somewhat important work
entitled “Discourses on Revenue and Trade,” and it was probably the MS.
of this to which Burke referred.
NOTE 49, p. 202.—Burke’s reasoning has been more than justified by
subsequent history. Cobden: “Writings,” i., 98, more than fifty
years after Burke spoke, declared: “The people of the United States
constitute our largest and most valuable connection. The business we
carry on with them is nearly twice as extensive as that with any other
people.” The American official returns since 1850 show that more than
one third of the imports came from England, and that more than one half
of the exports go to England.
NOTE 50, p. 202.—A curious adaptation from Virgil. Ecl. iv., 26.
If, while he was changing _parentis_ to _parentum_ he had omitted
_poterit_, he would at least have left a good Latin sentence. But Burke
quoted from memory and was often inexact, not only in the choice of
words, but also in pronunciation. Harford relates that he was once
indulging in some very severe animadversions on Lord North’s management
of the public purse. While this philippic was going on, North appeared
to be half-asleep, “heaving backward and forward like a great turtle.”
Burke introduced the aphorism: _magnum vectígal est parsimonia_,
putting a wrong accent on the second word and calling it _véctigal_.
The scholarly ear of North was sufficiently attentive to catch the
mistake, and he shouted out _vectígal_. “I thank the noble lord,”
responded Burke, “for the correction, more particularly as it gives me
the opportunity to repeat what he greatly needs to have reiterated upon
him.” He then thundered out: “_Magnum vectígal est parsimonia_.”
NOTE 51, p. 206.—In allusion to the well-known story told at length
by Valerius Maximus, lib. v., 7; and in briefer form by Pliny, “Nat.
Hist.,” vii., 36.
NOTE 52, p. 208.—The whole of this magnificent passage was founded upon
very substantial facts. Massachusetts had 183 vessels, carrying 13,820
tons in the North, and 120 vessels, carrying 14,026 tons in the South.
It was in 1775, the very year of Burke’s speech, that English ships
were first fitted out to follow the Americans into the fisheries of the
South Seas. See _Quarterly Review_, lxiii., 318.
NOTE 53, p. 211.—At the time of the great struggle against the Stuarts.
In the _Annual Register_, for 1775, p. 14, Burke says: “The American
freeholders at present are nearly, in point of condition, what the
English yeomen were of old when they rendered us formidable to all
Europe, and our name celebrated throughout the world. The former, from
many obvious circumstances, are more enthusiastical lovers of liberty
than even our yeomen were.”
NOTE 54, p. 213.—The differences here indicated are fully explained in
Marshall’s “American Colonies,” Story “On the Constitution,” Lodge’s
“English Colonies in America,” and more briefly in vol. iv., chap, vi.,
of Bancroft. It is noteworthy that it was not in the most democratic
forms of government that the most violent resolutions were passed. See
_Ann. Reg._ for 1775, p. 6.
NOTE 55, p. 218.—General Gage had prohibited the _calling_ of town
meetings after August 1, 1774. The meetings held before August 1st were
adjourned over from time to time, and consequently there was no need
of “_calling_” meetings. Gage complained that by such means they could
keep their meetings alive for ten years. See Bancroft, vii., chap.
viii., and _Ann. Reg._, 1775, p. 11.
NOTE 56, p. 219.—The “_ministrum fulminis alitem_” of Horace, bk. iv.,
ode i.
NOTE 57, p. 227.—In 1766, Lieutenant-Governor Fauquier had written to
the Lords in Trade: “In disobedience to all proclamations, in defiance
of law, and without the least shadow of right to claim or defend their
property, people are daily going out to settle beyond the Alleghany
Mountains.” Migration hither was prohibited. “But the prohibition
only set apart the Great Valley as the sanctuary of the unhappy, the
adventurous, and the free; of those whom enterprise, or curiosity, or
disgust at the forms of life in the old plantations raised above royal
edicts.” Bancroft, vi., 33.
NOTE 58, p. 233.—Reference is made to the brutal attack of Sir Edward
Coke upon Sir Walter Raleigh, the details of which are given in
Howell’s “State Trials,” ii., 7.
NOTE 59, p. 240.—Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” ii., 594.
NOTE 60, p. 240.—This passage has been much admired for the skill with
which Burke excludes the general question of the right of taxation, and
confines himself to the expediency of particular methods. But this was
in accordance with all of Burke’s political philosophy. In his “Appeal
from the Old to the New Whigs,” he announces the principle which
governs him in all such cases: “Nothing universal can be rationally
affirmed on any moral or any political subject. Pure metaphysical
abstraction does not belong to these matters. The lines of morality
are not like ideal lines of mathematics. They are broad and deep as
well as long. They admit of exceptions; they demand modifications.
These exceptions and modifications are not made by the process of
logic, but by the rules of prudence. _Prudence is not only the first in
rank of the virtues political and moral, but she is the director, the
regulator, the standard of them all._”
NOTE 61, p. 244.—The pamphlet from which Lord North “seems to have
borrowed these ideas,” was by Dean Tucker, a work to which, Dr. Johnson
in “Taxation no Tyranny,” (Works, x., 139) pays his respects, and which
Burke had alluded to in no very complimentary terms in his speech on
“American Taxation.” But Mr. Forster, in his “Life of Goldsmith,” i.,
412, speaks of Tucker as “the only man of that day who thoroughly
anticipated the judgment and experience of our own on the question of
the American colonies.” The fact is that Tucker was a “free trader,”
and was in favor of the establishment of complete freedom of trade, as
the best that could possibly be done with the colonies. To an account
of Dean Tucker’s pamphlets several interesting pages are given in
Smyth’s “Modern History,” Lecture xxxii., Am. ed., p. 571, _seq._
NOTE 62, p. 248.—The English settlers in Ireland were obliged to keep
themselves within certain boundaries known as “The Pale.” They were
distinct from the Irish, and were governed by English lords. By an act
in the time of James I., the privileges of the Pale were first extended
to the rest of Ireland.
NOTE 63, p. 249.—In 1612, Sir John Davis, who had been much in Ireland,
and knew Irish affairs better than any other person in his time,
published a book entitled: “Discoverie of the true Causes why Ireland
was never entirely subdued until the beginning of his Majestie’s happy
reign.”
NOTE 64, p. 250.—Under Henry III., Wales was ruled by its own Prince
Llewellen, who secured the assistance of Henry against a rebellious
son, and as a reward acknowledged fealty as a vassal. It was not till
Edward I., that the conquest was completed. O’Connell once said: “Wales
was once the Ireland of the English Government,” and then proceeded to
apply to Ireland what Burke here says of Wales.—“O’Connell’s speech of
Aug. 30, 1826.”
NOTE 65, p. 252.—When the reduction to order of Wales was found
impossible by ordinary means, the English King granted to the Lords
Marchers “such lands as they could win from the Welshmen.” On
these lands the lords were allowed “to take upon themselves such
prerogative and authority as were fit for the quiet government of
the country.” About the castles of the Lords Marchers grew up the
towns of Wales. Within their domains they exercised English laws;
but on the unconquered lands the old Welsh laws still prevailed. The
courts, therefore, had to administer both forms of law, and there was
consequently great confusion even in the most peaceful times. There
were fifteen acts of penal regulation, providing that no Welshman
should be allowed to become a burgess, or purchase any land in town.
Henry IV., ii., chaps. xii.-xx. In the time of Edward I., the special
privileges of the Lords Marchers were swept away. See Stubbs’ “Con.
Hist.,” 8vo ed., i., 514–520, and ii., 117–137; Scott’s “Betrothed,”
and the Appendix to Pennant’s “Tour in Wales.”
NOTE 66, p. 254.—Horace, “Odes,” bk. i., 12, 27. The allusion is to the
deification of Augustus and the superintending influence of Castor and
Pollux. The passage was translated by Gifford thus:
“When their auspicious star
To the sailor shines afar,
The troubled waters leave the rocks at rest;
The clouds are gone, the winds are still,
The angry wave obeys their will,
And calmly sleeps upon the ocean’s breast.”
NOTE 67, p. 258.—Milton’s “Comus,” l. 633, not quite correctly quoted.
NOTE 68, p. 261.—Horace, “Satir.,” ii., 2. “The precept is not mine.
Ofellus gave it in his rustic strain irregular, but wise.”
NOTE 69, p. 261.—In allusion to the declaration in Exodus xx., 25: “If
thou lift up thy tool upon it [the altar] thou hast polluted it.”
NOTE 70, p. 265.—In allusion to a statement that had been made by
Grenville. Burke said in his speech on American taxation: “He has
declared in this House an hundred times, that the colonies could not
legally grant any revenues to the Crown.”
NOTE 71, p. 278.—This was in strict accordance with Burke’s political
philosophy. In a letter to the Sheriff of Bristol, he wrote: “Of one
thing I am perfectly clear, that it is not by deciding the suit, but by
compromising the difference, that peace can be restored or kept.”
NOTE 72, p. 278.—Shak.: “Othello,” Act iii., Scene v. So at the
beginning of his paper on the “Present Discontents,” Burke speaks of
“reputation, the most precious possession of every individual.” In
the fourth letter on a “Regicide Peace,” he said: “Our ruin will be
disguised in profit, and the sale of a few wretched baubles will bribe
a degenerate people to barter away the most precious jewel of their
souls.”
NOTE 73, p. 279.—“I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of
love.”—HOSEA, xi., 4.
NOTE 74, p. 279.—Another illustration of Burke’s habit of making use of
the inestimable maxims of the great Greek politician.
NOTE 75, p. 282.—“Experiment upon a worthless subject” was a maxim
among old scientific inquirers.
NOTE 76, p. 286.—A “Treasury Extent” was a writ of Commission for
valuing lands and tenements for satisfying a Crown debt.
NOTE 77, p. 289.—The quotation is from Juvenal i., l. 90, and refers to
the habit of the Roman gambler. Gifford renders the passage:
“For now no more the pocket’s stores supply
The boundless charges of the desperate die,
_The chest itself is staked_.”
NOTE 78, p. 291.—Milton’s Paradise Lost, iv., 106. This also is a
misquotation:—_retract_ should be _recant_. Burke seldom took the
trouble to verify his quotations, but relied upon a powerful, though
slightly fallible, memory.
NOTE 79, p. 294.—This passage is perhaps one of the noblest and
most characteristic of all Burke’s utterances. And yet, in all its
magnificence it shows how largely the orator was indebted to his
reading. Mr. E. J. Payne, as an illustration of the way in which
Burke “repays his rich thievery of the Bible and the English poets,”
has pointed out the sources from which the most striking expressions
were consciously or unconsciously derived. The closing sentence in an
adaptation from Virgil, Æn. vi., 726; “My trust is in her,” is from
the Psalms; “Light as air,” etc., from Othello; “Grapple to you,”
from Hamlet; “No force under heaven,” etc., from St. Paul; “Chosen
race,” Tate & Brady; “Perfect obedience” and “mysterious whole,” from
Pope. Most striking of all, the passage in which “the chosen race” is
represented “turning their faces towards you,” is from 1. Kings, viii.,
44–45. “If the people go out to battle, or whithersoever thou shall
send them, and shall pray unto the Lord toward the city, which thou
hast chosen, and toward the house that I have built in thy name, then
hear thou in heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain
their cause.”
NOTE 80, p. 295.—Until 1798 the Land Tax yielded from one third to one
half of all the revenue; but in that year it was made permanent, and
now yields only about one sixty-fourth.
NOTE 81, p. 295.—The Mutiny Bill plays a very curious part in English
Constitutional usage. In the Declaration of Rights it was declared
that “standing armies and martial law in peace, without the consent of
Parliament, are illegal.” The “consent of Parliament” is now secured
in the following manner: An appropriation is made to support such an
army as is needed, but all of the provisions of the appropriating bill
are limited _to one year_. In order to maintain even the nucleus of
an army, therefore, it is absolutely necessary that Parliament should
be in session every year. This is the only provision guaranteeing an
annual assembling of Parliament.
NOTE 82, p. 296.—_Sursum Corda_: “let your hearts arise,” was the form
of a call to silent prayer at certain intervals in the Roman Catholic
service.
NOTE 83, p. 296.—_Let it be happy and prosperous_, was a form of prayer
among the Romans at the beginning of an important undertaking.