Nothing, in my opinion, would have
been less difficult than entirely to have overborne
their opposition.
been less difficult than entirely to have overborne
their opposition.
Edmund Burke
210 LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ.
which you and others of my friends in Ireland have
found in vindicating my conduct towards my native
country. It undoubtedly hurts me in some degree:
but the wound is not very deep. If I had sought
popularity in Ireland, when, in the cause of that
country, I was ready to sacrifice, and did sacrifice,
a much nearer, a much more immediate, and a much
more advantageous popularity here, I should find
myself perfectly unhappy, because I should be totally disappointed in my expectations, -because I
should discover, when it was too late, what common sense might have told me very early, that I
risked the capital of my fame in the most disadvantageous lottery in the world. But I acted then, as I
act now, and as I hope. I shall act always, from a
strong impulse of right, and from motives in which
popularity, either here or there, has but a very little
part.
With the support of that consciousness I can bear
a good deal of the coquetry of public opinion, which
has her caprices, anid must have her way. 1iseri,
quibus intentata nitet! I, too, have had my holiday
of popularity in Ireland. I have even heard of an
intention to erect a statue. * I believe my intimate
acquaintance know how little that idea was encouraged by me; and I was sincerely glad that it never
took effect. Such hlonors belong exclusively to the
tomb, -the natural and only period of human inconstancy, with regard either to desert or to opinion: for
they are the very same hands which erect, that very
frequently (and sometimes with reason enough) pluck
down the statue. Had such an unmerited and un* This intention was communicated to Mr. Burke in a letter from Mr. Pery, the Speaker of tlhe House of Commons in Ireland.
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ. 211
looked-for compliment been paid to me two years
ago, the fragments of the piece might at this hour
have the advantage of seeing actual service, while
they were moving, according to the law of projectiles, to the windows of the Attorney-General, or of
my old friend, Monk Mason.
To speak seriously, -- let me assure you, my dear
Sir, that, though I am not permitted to rejoice at all
its effects, there is not one man on your side of the
water more pleased to see the situation of Ireland so
prosperous as that she can afford to throw away her
friends. She has obtained, solely by her own efforts,
the fruits of a great victory, which I am very ready
to allow that the best efforts of her best well-wishers
here could not have done for her so effectually in a
great number of years, and perhaps could not have
done at all. I could wish, however, merely for the
sake of her own dignity, that, in turning her poor relations and antiquated friends out of doors, (though
one of the most common effects of new prosperity,)
she had thought proper to dismiss us with fewer tokens of unkindness. It is true that there is no sort
of danger in affronting men who are not of importance enough to have any trust of mninisterial, of
royal, or of national honor to surrender. The unforced and unbought services of humble men, who
have no medium of influence in great assemblies, but
through the precarious force of reason, must be looked
upon with contempt by those who by their wisdom and
spirit have improved the critical moment of their fortune, and have debated with authority against pusillanimous dissent and ungracious compliance, at the head of forty thousand men.
Such feeble auxiliaries (as I talk of) to such a
? ? ? ? 212 LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ.
force, employed against such resistance, I must own,
in the present moment, very little worthy of your attention. Yet, if one were to look forward, it scarcely
seems altogether politic to bestow so much liberality
of invective on the Whigs of this kingdom as I find
has been the fashion to do both in and out of Parliament, That you should pay compliments, in some
tone or other, whether ironical or serious, to the milnister from whose imbecility you have extorted what
you could never obtain fiom his bounty, is not unnatural. In the first effusions of Parliamentary gratitude to that minister for the early and voluntary
benefits he has conferred upon Ireland, it might appear that you were wanting to the triumph of his surrender, if you did not lead some of his enemies captive before him. Neither could you feast him with decorum, if his particular taste were not consulted.
A minister, who has never defended his measures
in any other way than by railing at his adversaries,
cannot have his palate made all at once to the relish of positive commendation. I cannot deny but
that on this occasion there was displayed a great
deal of the good-breeding which consists in the accommodation of the entertainment to the relish of
the guest.
But that ceremony being past, it would not be unworthy of the wisdom of Ireland to consider what consequences the extinguishing every spark of freedom
in this country may have upon your own liberties.
You. are at this instant flushed with victory, and full
of the confidence natural to recent and untried power. We are in a temper equally natural, though very
different. We feel as men do, who, having placed an
unbounded reliance on their force, have found it to
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ. 213
tally to fail on trial. We feel faint and heartless, and
without the smallest degree of self-opinion. In plain
words, we are cowed. When men give up their violence and injustice without a struggle, their condition
is next to desperate. When no art, no management,
lno argument, is necessary to abate their pride and
overcome their prejudices, and their uneasiness only
excites an obscure and feeble rattling in their throat,
their final dissolution seems not far off. Iln this miserable state we are still fuirther depressed by the overbearing influence of the crown. It acts with the officious cruelty of a mercenary nurse, who, under
pretence of tenderness, stifles us with our clothes,
and plucks the pillow from our heads. Injectu muzlte
vestis opprinmi senem jubet. Under this influence we
have so little will of our own, that, even in any apparent activity we may be got to assume, I may say,
without ainy violence to sense, and with very little to
language, we are merely passive. We have yielded
to your demands this session. In the last session we
refused to prevent them. In both cases, the passive
and the active, our principle was the same. Had the
crown pleased to retain the spirit, with regard to Ireland, which seems to be now all directed to America,
we should have neglected our own immediate defence,
and sent over the last man of our militia to fight with
the last man of your volunteers.
To this influence the principle of action, the principle of policy, and the principle of union of the present minority are opposed. These principles of the opposition are the only thing which preserves a single symptom of life in the nation. That opposition
is composed of the far greater part of the independent property and independent rank of the kingdom,
? ? ? ? 214 LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ.
of whatever is most untainted in character, and of
whatever ability remains unextinguished in the people, and of all which tends to draw the attention of
foreign countries upon this. It is now ill its final
and conclusive struggle. It has to struggle against
a force to which, I am afraid, it is not equal. The
whole kingdom of Scotland ranges with the venal,
the unprincipled, and the wrong-principled of this;
and if the kingdom of Ireland thinks proper to pass
into the same camp, we shall certainly be obliged to
quit the field. In that case, if I know anything of
this country, another constitutional opposition can
never be formed in it; and if this be impossible, it
will be at least as much so (if there can be degrees
in impossibility) to have a constitutional administration at any future time. The possibility of the
former is the only security for the existence of the
latter. Whether the present administration be in
the least like one, I must venture to doubt, even in
the honey-moon of the Irish fondness to Lord North,
which has succeeded to all their slappings and scratchings.
If liberty cannot maintain its ground in this kingdom, I am sure that it cannot have any long continuance in yours. Our liberty might now and then jar and strike a discord with that of Ireland. The
thing is possible: but still the instruments might
play in concert. But if ours be unstrung, yours
will be hung up on a peg, and both will be mute
forever. Your new military force may give you confidence, and it serves well for a turn; but you and
I know that it has not root. It is not perennial, and
would prove but a poor shelter for your liberty, when
this nation, having no interest in its own, could look
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ. 215
upon yours with the eye of envy and disgust. I
cannot, therefore, help thinking, and telling you
what with great submission I think, that, if the Parliament of Ireland be so jealous of the spirit of our common Constitution as she seems to be, it was not
so discreet to mix with the panegyric on the minister so large a portion of acrimony to the independent part of this nation. You never received any sort
of injury from them, aild you are grown to that
degree of importance that the discourses in your
Parliament will have a much greater effect on our
immediate fortune than our conversation can have
upon yours. In the end they will seriously affect
both.
I have looked back upon our conduct and our
public conversations in order to discover what it is
that can have given you offence. I have done so,
because I am ready to admit that to offend you without any cause would be as contrary to true policy
as I am sure it must be to the inclinations of almost
every one of us. About two years ago Lord Nugent
moved six propositions in favor of Ireland in the
House of Commons. At the time of the motions,
and during the debate, Lord North was either wholly out of the House, or engaged in other matters
of business or pleasantry, in the remotest recesses of
the West Saxon corner. He took no part whatsoever in the affair; but it was supposed his neutrality
was more inclined towards the side of favor. The
mover being a person in office was, however,. the
only indication that was given of such a leaning.
We who supported the propositions, finding them better relished than at first we looked for, pursued our advantage, and began to open a way for more essen
? ? ? ? 216 LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ.
tial benefits to Ireland. On the other hand, those
who had hitherto opposed them in vain redoubled
their efforts, and became exceedingly clamorous.
Then it was that Lord North found it necessary to
come out of his fastness, and to interpose between
the contending parties. In this character of mediator, he declared, that, if anything beyond the first
six resolutions should be attempted, he would oppose
the whole, but that, if we rested there, the original
motions should have his support. On this a sort of
convention took place between him and the managers of the Irish business, in which the six resolutions were to be considered as an uti possidetis, and to be held sacred.
By this time other parties began to appear. A
good many of the trading towns, and manufactures of
various kinds, took the alarm. Petitions crowded in.
upon one another, and the bar was occupied by a
formidable body of council. Lord N. was staggered
by this new battery. He is not of a constitution to
encounter such an opposition as had then risen, when
there were no other objects in view than those that
were then before the House. In order not to lose
him, we were obliged to abandon, bit by bit, the most
considerable part of the original agreement.
In several parts, however, he continued fair and
firm. For my own part, I acted, as I trust I comlmonly do, with decision. I saw very well that the
things we had got were of no great consideration;
but they were, even in their defects, somewhat leading. I was in hopes that we might obtain graduallly and by parts what we might attempt at once and in the whole without success, --that one concession
would lead to another,- and that the people of Eng
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ. 217
land discovering by a progressive experience that none
of the concessions actually made were followed by the
consequences they had dreaded, their fears from what
they were yet to yield would considerably diminish.
But that to which I attached myself the most particularly was, to fix the principle of a free trade in all
the ports of these islands, as founded in justice, and
beneficial to the whole, but principally to this, the seat
of the supreme power. And this I labored to the
utmost of my might, upon general principles, illustrated by all the commercial detail with which my little inquiries in life were able to furnish me. I ought to forget such trifling things as those, with all concerning myself; and possibly I might have forgotten
them, if the Lord Advocate of Scotland had not, in a
very flattering manner, revived them in my memory,
in a full House in this session. He told me that my
arguments, such as they were, had made him, at the
period I allude to, change the opinion with which he
had come into the House strongly impressed. I am
sure that at the time at least twenty more told me
the same thing. I certainly ought not to take their
style of compliment as a testimony to fact; neither
do I. But all this showed sufficiently, not what they
thought of my ability, but what they saw of my zeal.
I could say more in proof of the effects of that zeal,
and of the unceasing industry with which I then acted, both in my endeavors which were apparent and
those that were not so visible. Let it be remembered
that I showed those dispositions while the Parliament
of England was in a capacity to deliberate and in a
situation to refuse, when there was something to be
risked here by being suspected of a partiality to Ireland, when there was an honorable danger attending
? ? ? ? 218 LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ.
the profession of fiiendship to you, which heightened
its relish, and made it worthy of a reception in manly minds. But as for the awkward and nauseous parade of debate without opposition, the flimsy device
of tricking out necessity and disguising it in the habit of choice, the shallow stratagem of defendinlg by argument what all the world must perceive is yielded
to force, - these are a sort of acts of friendship whiclh
I am sorry that any of my countrymen should require
of their real friends. They are things not to my taste;
and if they are looked upon as tests of friendship, I
desire for one that I may be considered as an eniemy.
What party purpose did my conduct answer at
that time? I acted with Lord N. I went to all the
ministerial meetings, - and lie and his associates in
office will do me the justice to say, that, aiming at the
concord of the empire, I made it my business to give
his concessions all the value of which they were capable, whilst some of those who were covered with his favors derogated from them, treated them with contempt, and openly threatened to oppose them. If I had acted with my dearest and most valued friends,
if I had acted with time Marquis of Rockingham or
the Duke of Richmond, in that situation, I could not
have attended more to their honlor, or endeavored
more earnestly to give efficacy to the measures I had
taken in common with them. The return which I,
and all who acted as I did, have met with from him,
does not make me repent the conduct which I then
held.
As to the rest of the gentlemen with whom I have
the honor to act, they did not then, or at anly other
time, make a party affair of Irish politics. That
nlatter was always taken up without concert; but,
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ. 219
in general, from the operation of our known liberal
principles in government, in commerce, in religion,
in everything, it was taken up favorably for Ireland.
Where some local interests bore hard upon the inembers, they acted oin the sense of their constituents, upon ideas which, though I do not always follow,
I cannot blame. However, two or three persons,
high in opposition, and high in public esteem, ran
great risks in their boroughs on that occasion. But
all this was without anly particular plan. I need
not say, that Ireland was in that affair much obliged
to the liberal mind and enlarged understanding of
Charles Fox, to Mr. Thomas Townshend, to Lord
Midleton, and others. On reviewing that affair,
which gave rise to all the subsequent manlleuvres,
I am convinced that the whole of what has this day
been done might have then been effected. But then
the minister must have taken it up as a great plan
of national policy, and paid with his person in every
lodgment of his approach. He must have used that
influence to quiet prejudice, which he has so often
used to corrupt principle: and I know, that, if he
had, he must have succeeded. Many of the most
active in opposition would have given him an unequivocal support. The corporation of London, and
the great body of the London West India merchants
and planters, which forms the greatest mass of that
vast interest, were disposed to fall in with such a
plan. They certainly gave no sort of discountenance
to what was done or what was proposed. But these
are not the kind of objects for which our ministers
bring out the heavy artillery of the state. Therefore, as things stood at that time, a great deal more
was not practicable.
? ? ? ? 220 LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ.
Last year another proposition was brought out for
the relief of Ireland. . It was started without any
communication with a single person of activity in
the country party, and, as it should seem, without
any kind of concert with government. It appeared
to me extremely raw and undigested. The behavior of Lord N. , on the opening of that business,
was the exact transcript of his conduct on the Irish
question in the former session. It was a mode of
proceeding which his nature has wrought into the
texture of his politics, and which is inseparable from
them. He chose to absent himself on the proposition and during the agitation of that business,although the business of the House is that alone for which he has any kind of relish, or, as I am
told, can be persuaded to listen to with any degree
of attention. But he was willing to let it take its
course. If it should pass without any considerable
difficulty, he would bring his acquiescence to tell
for merit in Ireland, and he would have the credit,
out of his indolence, of giving quiet to that couintry. If difficulties should arise on the part of England, he knew that the House was so well trained that he might at his pleasure call us off from the
hottest scent. As he acted in his usual manner and
upon his usual principle, opposition acted upon theirs,
and rather generally supported the measure. As to
myself, I expressed a disapprobation at the practice
of bringing imperfect and indigested projects into the
House, before means were used to quiet the clamors which a misconception of what we were doing
might occasion at home, and before measures were
settled with men of weiglht and autlhority in Ireland,
in order to render our acts useful and acceptable
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ. 221
to that country. I said, that the only thing which
could make the influence of the crown (enormous
without as well as within the House) in any degree
tolerable was, that it might be employed to give
something of order and system to the proceedings
of a popular assembly; that government being so
situated as to have a large range of prospect, and
as it were a bird's-eye view of everything, they might
see distant dangers and distant advantages which
were not so visible to those who stood onl the common level; they might, besides, observe them, from this advantage, in their relative and combined state,
which people locally instructed and partially informed
could behold only in an insulated and unconnected
manner; -but that for many years past we suffered
under all the evils, without any one of the advantages of a government influence; that the business
of' a minister, or of those who acted as such, had
been still further to contract the narrowness of men'S;
ideas, to confirm inveterate prejudices, to inflame
vulgar passions, and to abet all sorts of popular
absurdities, in order the better to destroy popular
rights and privileges; that, so far from methodizing
the business of the House, they had let all things
run into an inextricable confusion, and had left affairs of the most delicate policy wholly to chance. After I had expressed myself with the warmth I
felt on seeing all government and order buried under
the ruins of liberty, and after 1 had made my protest
against the insufficiency of the propositions, I supported the principle of enlargement at which they aimed, though short and somewlhat wide of the mark,
g- iving, as my sole reason, that the more frequently these matters came into discussion, the more it
? ? ? ? 222 LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ.
would tend to dispel fears and to eradicate prejudices.
This was the only part I took. The detail was in
the hands of Lord Newhaven and Lord Beauchamp,
with some assistance from Earl Nugent and some independent gentlemen of Irish property. The dead
weight of the minister being removed, tile House
recovered its tone and elasticity. We had a temporary appearance of a deliberative character. The
business was debated freely on both sides, and with
sufficient temper. And the sense of the members
being influenced by nothing but what will naturally
influence men unbought, their reason and their prejudices, these two principles had a fair conflict, and
prejudice was obliged to give way to reason. A majority appeared, on a division, in favor of the propositions.
As these proceedings got out of doors, Glasgow
and Manchester, and, I think, Liverpool, began to
move, but in a manner much more slow and lallnguid
than formerly.
Nothing, in my opinion, would have
been less difficult than entirely to have overborne
their opposition. The London West India trade was,
as on the former occasion, so on this, perfectly liberal
and perfectly quiet; and there is abroad so much respect for the united wisdom of the House, whllen supposed to act upon a fair view of a political situation, that I scarcely ever remember any considerable uncasiness out of doors, when the most active members,
and those of most property and consideration in the
minority, have joined themselves to tile administra.
tion. Many factious people in the towns I mentioned
began, indeed, to revile Lord North, and to reproach
his neutrality as treacherous and ungrateful to those
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ. 223
who had so heartily and so warmly entered into all
his views with regard to America. That noble lord,
whose decided character it is to give way to the latest
and nearest pressure, without ally sort of regard to
distant consequences of any kind, thought fit to appear, on this signification of the pleasure of those his
worthy friends and partisans, and, putting himself at
the head of the posse seaccarii, wholly regardless of
the dignity and consistency of our miserable House,
drove the propositions entirely out of doors by a majority newly summoned to duty.
In order to atone to Ireland for this gratification
to Manchester, he graciously permitted, or rather forwarded, two bills, - that for encouraging the growth
of tobacco, and that for giving a bounty on exportation of hemp from Ireland. They were brougllt in
by two very worthy members, and on good principles; but I was sorry to see them, and, after expressillg my doubts of their propriety, left the House. Little also [else? ] was said upon them. My objections were two: the first, that the cultivation of
those weeds (if one of them could be at all cultivated to profit) was adverse to the introduction of
a good course of agriculture; the other, that the encouragement given to them tended to establish that
mischievous policy of considering Ireland as a country of staple, and a producer of raw materials.
When the rejectionl of the first propositions and the
acceptance of the last had jointly, as it was natural,
raised a very strong discontent in Ireland, Lord Rockingham,who firequently said that there never seemed
a more opportune time for the relief of Irelalnd than
that moment when Lord North had rejected all rational propositions for its relief, without consultillg, I
? ? ? ? 224 LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ.
believe, any one living, did what he is not often very
willing to do; but he thought this an occasion of
magnitude enough to justify an extraordinary step.
He went into the closet, and made a strong representation on the matter to the king, which was not ill received, and I believe produced good effects. He then
made the motion in the House of Lords which you
may recollect; but he was content to withdraw all
of censure which it contained, on the solemnl promise
of ministry, that they would in the recess of Parliament prepare a plan for the benefit of Ireland, and
have it in readiness to produce at the next meeting.
You may recollect that Lord Gower became in a particular manner bound for the fulfilling this ellgagement. Even this did not satisfy, and most of the minority were very unwilling that Parliament should be prorogued until something effectual on the subject
should be done, - particularly as we saw that the distresses, discontents, and armaments of Ireland were increasing every day, and that we are not so much lost
to common sense as not to know the wisdom and efficacy of early concession in circumstances such as ours.
The session was now at an end. The ministers,
instead of attending to a duty that was so urgent on
them, employed themselves, as usual, in endeavors to
destroy the reputation of those who were' bold enough
to remind them of it. They caused it to be industriously circulated through the nation, that the distresses
of Ireland were of a nature hard to be traced to the
true source, that they had been monstrously magnified, and that, in particular, the official reports from
Ireland had given the lie (that was their phrase) to
Lord Rockingham's representations: and attributing
the origin of the Irish proceedings wholly to us, they
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ. 225
asserted that everything done in Parliament upon
the subject was with a view of stirring up rebellion;
"that neither the Irish legislature nor their Constituents had signified any dissatisfaction at the relief
obtained in the session preceding the last; that, to
convince both of the impropriety of their peaceable
conduct, opposition, by making demands in the name
of Ireland, pointed out what she might extort from
Great Britain; that the facility with which relief was
(formerly) granted, instead of satisfying opposition,
was calculated to create new demands; these denlands, as they interfered with the commerce of
Great Britain, were certain of being opposed, --a
circumstance which could not fail to create that desirable confusion which suits the views of the party;
that they (the Irish) had long felt their own misery,
without knowing well from whence it came; our worthy
patriots, by pointing out Great Britain as the cause of
Irish distress, may have some chance of rousing Irish
resentment. " This I quote from a pamphlet as perfectly contemptible in point of writing as it is false in
its facts and wicked in its design: but as it is written
under the authority of ministers, by one of their principal literary pensioners, and was circulated with
great diligence, and, as I am credibly informed, at a
considerable expense to the public, I use the words of
that book to let you see in what manner the friends
and patrons of Ireland, the heroes of your Parliament, represented all efforts for your relief here,
what means they took to dispose the minds of the
people towards that great object, and what encouragement they gave to all who should choose to exert
themselves in your favor. Their unwearied endeavors were not wholly without success, and the unthinkVOL. VI. 15
? ? ? ? 226 LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ.
ing people in many places became ill-affected towards
us on this account. For the ministers proceeded in
your affairs just as they did with regard to those of
America. They always represented you as a parcel
of blockheads, without sense, or even feeling; that all
your words were only the echo of faction here; and
(as you have seen above) that you had not understanding enough to know that your trade was cramped by restrictive acts of the British Parliament, unless we
had, for factious purposes, given you the information.
They were so far from giving the least intimation of
the measures which have since taken place, that those
who were supposed the best to know their intentions
declared them impossible in the actual state of the
two kingdoms, and spoke of nothing but an act of
union, as the only way that could be found of giving
freedom of trade to Ireland, consistently with the
interests of this kingdom. Even when the session
opened, Lord North declared that he did not know
what remedy to apply to a disease of the cause of
which he was ignorant; and ministry not being then
entirely resolved how far they should submit to your
energy, they, by anticipation, set the above author
or some of his associates to fill the newspapers with
invectives against us, as distressing the minister by
extravagant demands in favor of Ireland.
I need not inform you, that everything they asserted of the steps taken in Ireland, as the result of
our machinations, was utterly false and groundless.
For myself, I seriously protest to you, that I neither
wrote a word or received a line upon any matter
relative to the trade of Ireland, or to the politics of it,
from the beginning of the last session to the day that
I was honored with your letter. It would be an af
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ. 227
front to the talents in the Irish Parliament to say one
word more.
What was done in Ireland during that period, in
and out of Parliament, never will be forgotten. You
raised an army new in its kind and adequate to its
purposes. It effected its end without its exertion. It
was not under the authority of law, most certainly,
but it derived from an authority still higher; and as
they say of faith, that it is not contrary to reason, but
above it, so this army did not so much contradict the
spirit of the law as supersede it. What you did in
the legislative body is above all praise. By your proceeding with regard to the supplies, you revived the grand use and characteristic benefit of Parliament,
which was on the point of being entirely lost amongst
us. These sentiments I never concealed, and never
shall; and Mr. Fox expressed them with his usual
power, when he spoke on the subject.
All this is very honorable to you. But in what
light must we see it? How are we to consider your
armament without commission from the crown, when
some of the first people in this kingdom have been refused arms, at the time they did not only not reject, but solicited the king's commissions? Here to arm
and embody would be represented as little less than
high treason, if done on private authority: with you
it receives the thanks of a Privy Counsellor of Great
Britain, who obeys the Irish House of Lords in that
point with pleasure, and is made Secretary of State,
the moment he lands here, for his reward. You
shortened the credit given to the crown to six months;
you hung up the public credit of your kingdom by a
thread; you refused to raise any taxes, whilst you
confessed the public debt and public exigencies to
? ? ? ? 228 LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ.
be great and urgent beyond example. You certainly
acted in a great style, and on sound and invincible
principles. But if we in the opposition, which fills
Ireland with such loyal horrors, had even attempted,
what we never did even attempt, the smallest delay or
the smallest limitation of supply, in order to a constitutional coercion of the crown, we should have been
decried by all the court and Tory mouths of this kingdom, as a desperate faction, aiming at the direct ruin
of the:country, and to surrender it bound hand and
foot to a foreign enemy. By actually doing what we
never ventured to attempt, you have paid your court
with such address, and have won so much favor with
his Majesty and his cabinet, that they have, of their
special grace and mere motion, raised you to new
titles, and, for the first time, in a speech from the
throne, complimented you with the appellation of
"faithful and loyal," --and, in order to insult our
low-spirited and degenerate obedience, have thrown
these epithets and your resistance together in our
teeth! What do you think were the feelings of every
man who looks upon Parliament in an higher light
than that of a market-overt for legalizing a base traffic of votes and pensions, when he saw you employ
such means of coercion to the crown, in order to
coerce our Parliament through that medium? Howmuch his Majesty is pleased with his part of the civility must be left to his own taste. But as to us, you declared to the world that you knew that the way of
bringing us to reason was to apply yourselves to the
true source of all our opinions and the only motive to
all our conduct! Now, it seems, you think yourselves
affronted, because a few of us express some indignation at the minister who has thought fit to strip us
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ. 229
stark naked, and expose the true state of our poxed
and pestilential habit to the world! Think or say
what you will in Ireland, I shall ever think it a crime
hardly to be expiated by his blood. He might, and
ought, by a longer continuance or by an earlier meeting of this Parliament, to have given us the credit of
some wisdom in foreseeing and anticipating an approaching force. So far from it, Lord Gower, coming out of his own cabinet, declares that one principal cause of his resignation was his not being able to prevail on the present minister to give any sort of application to this business. Even on the late meeting of Parliament, nothing determinate could be drawn from
him, or from any of his associates, until you had actually passed the short money bill, - which measure
they flattered themselves, and assured others, you
would never come up to. Disappointed in their expectation at [of? ] seeing the siege raised, they surrendered at discretion.
Judge, my dear Sir, of our surprise at finding your
censure directed against those whose only crime was
in accusing the ministers of not having prevented
your demands by our graces, of not having given
you the natural advantages of your country in the
most ample, the most early, and the most liberal
manner, and for not having given away authority
in such a manner as to insure friendship. That you
should make the panegyric of the ministers is what I
~xpected; because, in praising their bounty, you paid
t just compliment to your own force. But that you;hould rail at us, either individually or collectively,
s what I can scarcely think a natural proceeding. I,an easily conceive that gentlemen might grow frightrned at what they had done, - that they might im
? ? ? ? 230 LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ.
agine they had undertaken a business above their direction, -that, having obtained a state of independence for their country, they meant to take the deserted helm into their own hands, and supply by their very real abilities the total inefficacy of the nominal
government. All these might be real, and might be
very justifiable motives for their reconciling themselves cordially to the present court system. But I
do not so well discover the reasons that could induce
them, at the first feeble dawning of life in this country, to do all in their power to cast a cloud over it,
and to prevent the least hope of our effecting the necessary reformations which are aimed at in our Constitution and in our national economy.
But, it seems, I was silent at the passing the resolutions. Why, what had I to say? If I had
thought them too much, I should have been accused
of all endeavor to inflame England. If I should represent them as too little, I should have been charged
with a design of fomenting the discontents of Ireland
into actual rebellion. The Treasury bench represented that the affair was a matter of state: they represented it truly. I therefore only asked whether they
knew these propositions to be such as would satisfy
Ireland; for if they were so, they would satisfy me.
This did not indicate that I thought them too ample.
In this our silence (however dishonorable to Parliament) there was one advantage, - that the whole
passed, as far as it is gone, with complete unanimity,
and so quickly that there was no time left to excite
any opposition to it out of doors. In the West India
business, reasoning on what had lately passed in the
Parliament of Ireland, and on the mode in which it
was opened here, I thought I saw much matter of
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ. 231
perplexity. But I have now better reason than ever
to be pleased with my silence. If I had spoken, one
of the most honest and able men * in the Irish Parliament would probably have thought my observation an endeavor to sow dissension, which he was resolved
to prevent, - and one of the most ingenious and one
of the most amiable men t that ever graced yours or
any House of Parliament might have looked on it as
a chimera. In the silence I observed, I was strongly
countenanced (to say no more of it) by every gentleman of Ireland that I had the honor of conversing with in London. The only word, for that reason,
which I spoke, was to restrain a worthy county member, j who had received some communication from a great trading place in the county he represents, which,
if it had been opened to the House, would have led
to a perplexing discussion of one of the most troublesome matters that could arise in this business. I got up to put a stop to it; and I believe, if you knew
what the topic was, you would commend my discretion.
That it should be a matter of public discretion in
me to be silent on the affairs of Ireland is what on all
accounts I bitterly lament. I stated to the House
what I felt; and I felt, as strongly as human sensibility can feel, the extinction of my Parliamentary capacity, where I wished to use it most. When I
came into this Parliament, just fourteen years ago, -
into this Parliament, then, in vulgar opinion at least,
the presiding council of the greatest empire existing,
(and perhaps, all things considered, that ever did
exist,) obscure and a stranger as I was, I consid* Mr. Grattan.
? t Mr. Hussey Burgh: Mr. Stanley, member for Lancashire.
? ? ? 232 LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ.
ered myself as raised to the highest dignity to which
a creature of our species could aspire. In that opinion, one of the chief pleasures in my situation, what was first and uppermost in my thoughts, was the
hope, without injury to this country, to be somewhat useful to the place of my birth and education,
which in many respects, internal and external, I
thought ill and impolitically governed. But when I
found that the House, surrendering itself to the guidance of an authority, not grown out of an experienced wisdom and integrity, but out of the accidents of court
favor, had become the sport of the passions of men at
once rash and pusillanimous, -that it had even got
into the habit of refusing everything to reason and
surrendering everything to force, all my power of
obliging either my country or individuals was gone,
all the lustre of my imaginary rank was tarnished,
and I felt degraded even by my elevation. I said
this, or something to this effect. If it, gives offence
to Ireland, I am sorry for it: it was the reason I
gave for my silence; and it was, as far as it went,
the true one.
With you, this silence of mine and of others was
represented as factious, and as a discountenance to
the measure of your relief. Do you think us children? If it had been our wish to embroil matters,
and, for the sake of distressing ministry, to commit
the two kingdoms in a dispute, we had nothing to do
but (without at all condemning the propositions) to
have gone into the commercial detail of the objects
of them. It could not have been refused to us: and
you, who know the nature of business so well, must
know that this would have caused such delays, and
given rise during that delay to such discussions, as
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ. 233
all the wisdom of your favorite minister could never
have settled. But, indeed, you mistake your men.
We tremble at the idea of a disunion of these two
nations. The only thing in which we differ with you
is this, - that we do not think your attaching yourselves to the court and quarrelling with the independent part of this people is the way to promote the union of two free countries, or of holding them
together by the most natural and salutary ties.
You will be frightened, when you see this long
letter. I smile, when I consider the length of it myself. I never, that I remember, wrote any of the
same extent. But it shows me that the reproaches
of the country that I once belonged to, and in which
I still have a dearness of instinct more than I can
justify to reason, make a greater impression on me
than I had imagined. But parting words are admitted to be a little tedious, because they are not
likely to be renewed. If it will not be making yourself as troublesome to others as I am to you, I shall
be obliged to you, if you will show this, at their
greatest leisure, to the Speaker, to your excellent
kinsman, to Mr. Grattan, Mr. Yelverton, and Mr.
Daly: all these I have the honor of being personally known to, except Mr. Yelverton, to whom I am
only known by my obligations to him. If you
live in any habits with my old friend, the Provost,
I shall be glad that he, too, sees this my humble
apology.
Adieu! once more accept my best thanks for the
interest you take in me. Believe that it is received
by an heart not yet so old as to have lost its susceptibility. A11 here give you the best old-fashioned
? ? ? ? 234 LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ.
wishes of the season; and believe me, with the greatest truth and regard, My dear Sir,
Your most faithful and obliged humble servant,
EDMUND BURKE.
BEACONSFIELD, New Year's Day, 1780.
I am frightened at the trouble I give you and our
friends; but I recollect that you are mostly lawyers,
and habituated to read long, tiresome papers - and,
where your friendship is concerned, without a fee;
I am sure, too, that you will not act the lawyer in
scrutinizing too minutely every expression which my
haste may make me use. I forgot to mention my
friend O'Hara, and others; but you will communicate it as you please.
? ? ? ? LETTE R
TO JOHN MERLOTT, ESQ. *
DEAR SIR,-I am very unhappy to find that
my conduct in the business of Ireland, on a former occasion, had made many to be cold and indifferent who would otherwise have been warm in my favor. I really thought that events would have produced a quite contrary effect, and would have proved
to all the inhabitants of Bristol that it was no desire
of opposing myself to their wishes, but a certain
knowledge of the necessity of their affairs, and a
tender regard to their honor and interest, which induced me to take the part which I then took. They
placed me in a situation which might enable me to
discern what was fit to be done, on a consideration
of the relative circumstances of this country and all
its neighbors. This was what you could not so well
do yourselves; but you had a right to expect that
I should avail myself of the advantage which I derived from your favor. Under the impression of
this duty and this trust, I had endeavored to render, by preventive graces and concessions, every act
of power at the same time an act of lenity, - the
result of English bounty, and not of English timidity
and distress. I really flattered myself that the events
*An eminent merchant in the city of Bristol, of which Mr. Burke
was one of the representatives in Parliament. - It relates to the same
subject as the preceding Letter.
? ? ? ? 236 LETTER TO JOHN MERLOTT, ESQ.
which have proved beyond dispute the prudence of
such a maxim would have obtained pardon for me,
if not approbation. But if I have not been so fortunate, I do most sincerely regret my great loss,with this comfort, however, that, if I have disobliged my constituents, it was not in pursuit of any sinister interest or any party passion of my own, but in
endeavoring to save them from disgrace, along with
the whole community to which they and I belong.
I shall be concerned for this, and very much so;
but I should be more concerned, if, in gratifying a
present humor of theirs, I had rendered myself unworthy of their former or their future choice. I
confess that I could not bear to face my constituents
at the next general election, if I had been a rival
to Lord North in the glory of having refused some
small, insignificant concessions, in favor of Ireland,
to the arguments and supplications of English members of Parliament, - and in the very next session,
on the demand of forty thousand Irish bayonets, of
having made a speech of two hours long to prove
that my former conduct was founded upon no one
right principle, either of policy, justice, or commerce.
I never heard a more elaborate, more able, more convincing, and more shameful speech. The debater
obtained credit, but the statesman was disgraced
forever. Amends were made for having refused
small, but timely concessions, by an unlimited and
untimely surrender, not only of every one of the
objects of former restraints, but virtually of the
whole legislative power itself which had made them.
For it is not necessary to inform you, that the unfortunate Parliament of this kingdom did not dare
to qualify the very liberty she gave of trading with
? ? ? ?
which you and others of my friends in Ireland have
found in vindicating my conduct towards my native
country. It undoubtedly hurts me in some degree:
but the wound is not very deep. If I had sought
popularity in Ireland, when, in the cause of that
country, I was ready to sacrifice, and did sacrifice,
a much nearer, a much more immediate, and a much
more advantageous popularity here, I should find
myself perfectly unhappy, because I should be totally disappointed in my expectations, -because I
should discover, when it was too late, what common sense might have told me very early, that I
risked the capital of my fame in the most disadvantageous lottery in the world. But I acted then, as I
act now, and as I hope. I shall act always, from a
strong impulse of right, and from motives in which
popularity, either here or there, has but a very little
part.
With the support of that consciousness I can bear
a good deal of the coquetry of public opinion, which
has her caprices, anid must have her way. 1iseri,
quibus intentata nitet! I, too, have had my holiday
of popularity in Ireland. I have even heard of an
intention to erect a statue. * I believe my intimate
acquaintance know how little that idea was encouraged by me; and I was sincerely glad that it never
took effect. Such hlonors belong exclusively to the
tomb, -the natural and only period of human inconstancy, with regard either to desert or to opinion: for
they are the very same hands which erect, that very
frequently (and sometimes with reason enough) pluck
down the statue. Had such an unmerited and un* This intention was communicated to Mr. Burke in a letter from Mr. Pery, the Speaker of tlhe House of Commons in Ireland.
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ. 211
looked-for compliment been paid to me two years
ago, the fragments of the piece might at this hour
have the advantage of seeing actual service, while
they were moving, according to the law of projectiles, to the windows of the Attorney-General, or of
my old friend, Monk Mason.
To speak seriously, -- let me assure you, my dear
Sir, that, though I am not permitted to rejoice at all
its effects, there is not one man on your side of the
water more pleased to see the situation of Ireland so
prosperous as that she can afford to throw away her
friends. She has obtained, solely by her own efforts,
the fruits of a great victory, which I am very ready
to allow that the best efforts of her best well-wishers
here could not have done for her so effectually in a
great number of years, and perhaps could not have
done at all. I could wish, however, merely for the
sake of her own dignity, that, in turning her poor relations and antiquated friends out of doors, (though
one of the most common effects of new prosperity,)
she had thought proper to dismiss us with fewer tokens of unkindness. It is true that there is no sort
of danger in affronting men who are not of importance enough to have any trust of mninisterial, of
royal, or of national honor to surrender. The unforced and unbought services of humble men, who
have no medium of influence in great assemblies, but
through the precarious force of reason, must be looked
upon with contempt by those who by their wisdom and
spirit have improved the critical moment of their fortune, and have debated with authority against pusillanimous dissent and ungracious compliance, at the head of forty thousand men.
Such feeble auxiliaries (as I talk of) to such a
? ? ? ? 212 LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ.
force, employed against such resistance, I must own,
in the present moment, very little worthy of your attention. Yet, if one were to look forward, it scarcely
seems altogether politic to bestow so much liberality
of invective on the Whigs of this kingdom as I find
has been the fashion to do both in and out of Parliament, That you should pay compliments, in some
tone or other, whether ironical or serious, to the milnister from whose imbecility you have extorted what
you could never obtain fiom his bounty, is not unnatural. In the first effusions of Parliamentary gratitude to that minister for the early and voluntary
benefits he has conferred upon Ireland, it might appear that you were wanting to the triumph of his surrender, if you did not lead some of his enemies captive before him. Neither could you feast him with decorum, if his particular taste were not consulted.
A minister, who has never defended his measures
in any other way than by railing at his adversaries,
cannot have his palate made all at once to the relish of positive commendation. I cannot deny but
that on this occasion there was displayed a great
deal of the good-breeding which consists in the accommodation of the entertainment to the relish of
the guest.
But that ceremony being past, it would not be unworthy of the wisdom of Ireland to consider what consequences the extinguishing every spark of freedom
in this country may have upon your own liberties.
You. are at this instant flushed with victory, and full
of the confidence natural to recent and untried power. We are in a temper equally natural, though very
different. We feel as men do, who, having placed an
unbounded reliance on their force, have found it to
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ. 213
tally to fail on trial. We feel faint and heartless, and
without the smallest degree of self-opinion. In plain
words, we are cowed. When men give up their violence and injustice without a struggle, their condition
is next to desperate. When no art, no management,
lno argument, is necessary to abate their pride and
overcome their prejudices, and their uneasiness only
excites an obscure and feeble rattling in their throat,
their final dissolution seems not far off. Iln this miserable state we are still fuirther depressed by the overbearing influence of the crown. It acts with the officious cruelty of a mercenary nurse, who, under
pretence of tenderness, stifles us with our clothes,
and plucks the pillow from our heads. Injectu muzlte
vestis opprinmi senem jubet. Under this influence we
have so little will of our own, that, even in any apparent activity we may be got to assume, I may say,
without ainy violence to sense, and with very little to
language, we are merely passive. We have yielded
to your demands this session. In the last session we
refused to prevent them. In both cases, the passive
and the active, our principle was the same. Had the
crown pleased to retain the spirit, with regard to Ireland, which seems to be now all directed to America,
we should have neglected our own immediate defence,
and sent over the last man of our militia to fight with
the last man of your volunteers.
To this influence the principle of action, the principle of policy, and the principle of union of the present minority are opposed. These principles of the opposition are the only thing which preserves a single symptom of life in the nation. That opposition
is composed of the far greater part of the independent property and independent rank of the kingdom,
? ? ? ? 214 LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ.
of whatever is most untainted in character, and of
whatever ability remains unextinguished in the people, and of all which tends to draw the attention of
foreign countries upon this. It is now ill its final
and conclusive struggle. It has to struggle against
a force to which, I am afraid, it is not equal. The
whole kingdom of Scotland ranges with the venal,
the unprincipled, and the wrong-principled of this;
and if the kingdom of Ireland thinks proper to pass
into the same camp, we shall certainly be obliged to
quit the field. In that case, if I know anything of
this country, another constitutional opposition can
never be formed in it; and if this be impossible, it
will be at least as much so (if there can be degrees
in impossibility) to have a constitutional administration at any future time. The possibility of the
former is the only security for the existence of the
latter. Whether the present administration be in
the least like one, I must venture to doubt, even in
the honey-moon of the Irish fondness to Lord North,
which has succeeded to all their slappings and scratchings.
If liberty cannot maintain its ground in this kingdom, I am sure that it cannot have any long continuance in yours. Our liberty might now and then jar and strike a discord with that of Ireland. The
thing is possible: but still the instruments might
play in concert. But if ours be unstrung, yours
will be hung up on a peg, and both will be mute
forever. Your new military force may give you confidence, and it serves well for a turn; but you and
I know that it has not root. It is not perennial, and
would prove but a poor shelter for your liberty, when
this nation, having no interest in its own, could look
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ. 215
upon yours with the eye of envy and disgust. I
cannot, therefore, help thinking, and telling you
what with great submission I think, that, if the Parliament of Ireland be so jealous of the spirit of our common Constitution as she seems to be, it was not
so discreet to mix with the panegyric on the minister so large a portion of acrimony to the independent part of this nation. You never received any sort
of injury from them, aild you are grown to that
degree of importance that the discourses in your
Parliament will have a much greater effect on our
immediate fortune than our conversation can have
upon yours. In the end they will seriously affect
both.
I have looked back upon our conduct and our
public conversations in order to discover what it is
that can have given you offence. I have done so,
because I am ready to admit that to offend you without any cause would be as contrary to true policy
as I am sure it must be to the inclinations of almost
every one of us. About two years ago Lord Nugent
moved six propositions in favor of Ireland in the
House of Commons. At the time of the motions,
and during the debate, Lord North was either wholly out of the House, or engaged in other matters
of business or pleasantry, in the remotest recesses of
the West Saxon corner. He took no part whatsoever in the affair; but it was supposed his neutrality
was more inclined towards the side of favor. The
mover being a person in office was, however,. the
only indication that was given of such a leaning.
We who supported the propositions, finding them better relished than at first we looked for, pursued our advantage, and began to open a way for more essen
? ? ? ? 216 LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ.
tial benefits to Ireland. On the other hand, those
who had hitherto opposed them in vain redoubled
their efforts, and became exceedingly clamorous.
Then it was that Lord North found it necessary to
come out of his fastness, and to interpose between
the contending parties. In this character of mediator, he declared, that, if anything beyond the first
six resolutions should be attempted, he would oppose
the whole, but that, if we rested there, the original
motions should have his support. On this a sort of
convention took place between him and the managers of the Irish business, in which the six resolutions were to be considered as an uti possidetis, and to be held sacred.
By this time other parties began to appear. A
good many of the trading towns, and manufactures of
various kinds, took the alarm. Petitions crowded in.
upon one another, and the bar was occupied by a
formidable body of council. Lord N. was staggered
by this new battery. He is not of a constitution to
encounter such an opposition as had then risen, when
there were no other objects in view than those that
were then before the House. In order not to lose
him, we were obliged to abandon, bit by bit, the most
considerable part of the original agreement.
In several parts, however, he continued fair and
firm. For my own part, I acted, as I trust I comlmonly do, with decision. I saw very well that the
things we had got were of no great consideration;
but they were, even in their defects, somewhat leading. I was in hopes that we might obtain graduallly and by parts what we might attempt at once and in the whole without success, --that one concession
would lead to another,- and that the people of Eng
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ. 217
land discovering by a progressive experience that none
of the concessions actually made were followed by the
consequences they had dreaded, their fears from what
they were yet to yield would considerably diminish.
But that to which I attached myself the most particularly was, to fix the principle of a free trade in all
the ports of these islands, as founded in justice, and
beneficial to the whole, but principally to this, the seat
of the supreme power. And this I labored to the
utmost of my might, upon general principles, illustrated by all the commercial detail with which my little inquiries in life were able to furnish me. I ought to forget such trifling things as those, with all concerning myself; and possibly I might have forgotten
them, if the Lord Advocate of Scotland had not, in a
very flattering manner, revived them in my memory,
in a full House in this session. He told me that my
arguments, such as they were, had made him, at the
period I allude to, change the opinion with which he
had come into the House strongly impressed. I am
sure that at the time at least twenty more told me
the same thing. I certainly ought not to take their
style of compliment as a testimony to fact; neither
do I. But all this showed sufficiently, not what they
thought of my ability, but what they saw of my zeal.
I could say more in proof of the effects of that zeal,
and of the unceasing industry with which I then acted, both in my endeavors which were apparent and
those that were not so visible. Let it be remembered
that I showed those dispositions while the Parliament
of England was in a capacity to deliberate and in a
situation to refuse, when there was something to be
risked here by being suspected of a partiality to Ireland, when there was an honorable danger attending
? ? ? ? 218 LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ.
the profession of fiiendship to you, which heightened
its relish, and made it worthy of a reception in manly minds. But as for the awkward and nauseous parade of debate without opposition, the flimsy device
of tricking out necessity and disguising it in the habit of choice, the shallow stratagem of defendinlg by argument what all the world must perceive is yielded
to force, - these are a sort of acts of friendship whiclh
I am sorry that any of my countrymen should require
of their real friends. They are things not to my taste;
and if they are looked upon as tests of friendship, I
desire for one that I may be considered as an eniemy.
What party purpose did my conduct answer at
that time? I acted with Lord N. I went to all the
ministerial meetings, - and lie and his associates in
office will do me the justice to say, that, aiming at the
concord of the empire, I made it my business to give
his concessions all the value of which they were capable, whilst some of those who were covered with his favors derogated from them, treated them with contempt, and openly threatened to oppose them. If I had acted with my dearest and most valued friends,
if I had acted with time Marquis of Rockingham or
the Duke of Richmond, in that situation, I could not
have attended more to their honlor, or endeavored
more earnestly to give efficacy to the measures I had
taken in common with them. The return which I,
and all who acted as I did, have met with from him,
does not make me repent the conduct which I then
held.
As to the rest of the gentlemen with whom I have
the honor to act, they did not then, or at anly other
time, make a party affair of Irish politics. That
nlatter was always taken up without concert; but,
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ. 219
in general, from the operation of our known liberal
principles in government, in commerce, in religion,
in everything, it was taken up favorably for Ireland.
Where some local interests bore hard upon the inembers, they acted oin the sense of their constituents, upon ideas which, though I do not always follow,
I cannot blame. However, two or three persons,
high in opposition, and high in public esteem, ran
great risks in their boroughs on that occasion. But
all this was without anly particular plan. I need
not say, that Ireland was in that affair much obliged
to the liberal mind and enlarged understanding of
Charles Fox, to Mr. Thomas Townshend, to Lord
Midleton, and others. On reviewing that affair,
which gave rise to all the subsequent manlleuvres,
I am convinced that the whole of what has this day
been done might have then been effected. But then
the minister must have taken it up as a great plan
of national policy, and paid with his person in every
lodgment of his approach. He must have used that
influence to quiet prejudice, which he has so often
used to corrupt principle: and I know, that, if he
had, he must have succeeded. Many of the most
active in opposition would have given him an unequivocal support. The corporation of London, and
the great body of the London West India merchants
and planters, which forms the greatest mass of that
vast interest, were disposed to fall in with such a
plan. They certainly gave no sort of discountenance
to what was done or what was proposed. But these
are not the kind of objects for which our ministers
bring out the heavy artillery of the state. Therefore, as things stood at that time, a great deal more
was not practicable.
? ? ? ? 220 LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ.
Last year another proposition was brought out for
the relief of Ireland. . It was started without any
communication with a single person of activity in
the country party, and, as it should seem, without
any kind of concert with government. It appeared
to me extremely raw and undigested. The behavior of Lord N. , on the opening of that business,
was the exact transcript of his conduct on the Irish
question in the former session. It was a mode of
proceeding which his nature has wrought into the
texture of his politics, and which is inseparable from
them. He chose to absent himself on the proposition and during the agitation of that business,although the business of the House is that alone for which he has any kind of relish, or, as I am
told, can be persuaded to listen to with any degree
of attention. But he was willing to let it take its
course. If it should pass without any considerable
difficulty, he would bring his acquiescence to tell
for merit in Ireland, and he would have the credit,
out of his indolence, of giving quiet to that couintry. If difficulties should arise on the part of England, he knew that the House was so well trained that he might at his pleasure call us off from the
hottest scent. As he acted in his usual manner and
upon his usual principle, opposition acted upon theirs,
and rather generally supported the measure. As to
myself, I expressed a disapprobation at the practice
of bringing imperfect and indigested projects into the
House, before means were used to quiet the clamors which a misconception of what we were doing
might occasion at home, and before measures were
settled with men of weiglht and autlhority in Ireland,
in order to render our acts useful and acceptable
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ. 221
to that country. I said, that the only thing which
could make the influence of the crown (enormous
without as well as within the House) in any degree
tolerable was, that it might be employed to give
something of order and system to the proceedings
of a popular assembly; that government being so
situated as to have a large range of prospect, and
as it were a bird's-eye view of everything, they might
see distant dangers and distant advantages which
were not so visible to those who stood onl the common level; they might, besides, observe them, from this advantage, in their relative and combined state,
which people locally instructed and partially informed
could behold only in an insulated and unconnected
manner; -but that for many years past we suffered
under all the evils, without any one of the advantages of a government influence; that the business
of' a minister, or of those who acted as such, had
been still further to contract the narrowness of men'S;
ideas, to confirm inveterate prejudices, to inflame
vulgar passions, and to abet all sorts of popular
absurdities, in order the better to destroy popular
rights and privileges; that, so far from methodizing
the business of the House, they had let all things
run into an inextricable confusion, and had left affairs of the most delicate policy wholly to chance. After I had expressed myself with the warmth I
felt on seeing all government and order buried under
the ruins of liberty, and after 1 had made my protest
against the insufficiency of the propositions, I supported the principle of enlargement at which they aimed, though short and somewlhat wide of the mark,
g- iving, as my sole reason, that the more frequently these matters came into discussion, the more it
? ? ? ? 222 LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ.
would tend to dispel fears and to eradicate prejudices.
This was the only part I took. The detail was in
the hands of Lord Newhaven and Lord Beauchamp,
with some assistance from Earl Nugent and some independent gentlemen of Irish property. The dead
weight of the minister being removed, tile House
recovered its tone and elasticity. We had a temporary appearance of a deliberative character. The
business was debated freely on both sides, and with
sufficient temper. And the sense of the members
being influenced by nothing but what will naturally
influence men unbought, their reason and their prejudices, these two principles had a fair conflict, and
prejudice was obliged to give way to reason. A majority appeared, on a division, in favor of the propositions.
As these proceedings got out of doors, Glasgow
and Manchester, and, I think, Liverpool, began to
move, but in a manner much more slow and lallnguid
than formerly.
Nothing, in my opinion, would have
been less difficult than entirely to have overborne
their opposition. The London West India trade was,
as on the former occasion, so on this, perfectly liberal
and perfectly quiet; and there is abroad so much respect for the united wisdom of the House, whllen supposed to act upon a fair view of a political situation, that I scarcely ever remember any considerable uncasiness out of doors, when the most active members,
and those of most property and consideration in the
minority, have joined themselves to tile administra.
tion. Many factious people in the towns I mentioned
began, indeed, to revile Lord North, and to reproach
his neutrality as treacherous and ungrateful to those
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ. 223
who had so heartily and so warmly entered into all
his views with regard to America. That noble lord,
whose decided character it is to give way to the latest
and nearest pressure, without ally sort of regard to
distant consequences of any kind, thought fit to appear, on this signification of the pleasure of those his
worthy friends and partisans, and, putting himself at
the head of the posse seaccarii, wholly regardless of
the dignity and consistency of our miserable House,
drove the propositions entirely out of doors by a majority newly summoned to duty.
In order to atone to Ireland for this gratification
to Manchester, he graciously permitted, or rather forwarded, two bills, - that for encouraging the growth
of tobacco, and that for giving a bounty on exportation of hemp from Ireland. They were brougllt in
by two very worthy members, and on good principles; but I was sorry to see them, and, after expressillg my doubts of their propriety, left the House. Little also [else? ] was said upon them. My objections were two: the first, that the cultivation of
those weeds (if one of them could be at all cultivated to profit) was adverse to the introduction of
a good course of agriculture; the other, that the encouragement given to them tended to establish that
mischievous policy of considering Ireland as a country of staple, and a producer of raw materials.
When the rejectionl of the first propositions and the
acceptance of the last had jointly, as it was natural,
raised a very strong discontent in Ireland, Lord Rockingham,who firequently said that there never seemed
a more opportune time for the relief of Irelalnd than
that moment when Lord North had rejected all rational propositions for its relief, without consultillg, I
? ? ? ? 224 LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ.
believe, any one living, did what he is not often very
willing to do; but he thought this an occasion of
magnitude enough to justify an extraordinary step.
He went into the closet, and made a strong representation on the matter to the king, which was not ill received, and I believe produced good effects. He then
made the motion in the House of Lords which you
may recollect; but he was content to withdraw all
of censure which it contained, on the solemnl promise
of ministry, that they would in the recess of Parliament prepare a plan for the benefit of Ireland, and
have it in readiness to produce at the next meeting.
You may recollect that Lord Gower became in a particular manner bound for the fulfilling this ellgagement. Even this did not satisfy, and most of the minority were very unwilling that Parliament should be prorogued until something effectual on the subject
should be done, - particularly as we saw that the distresses, discontents, and armaments of Ireland were increasing every day, and that we are not so much lost
to common sense as not to know the wisdom and efficacy of early concession in circumstances such as ours.
The session was now at an end. The ministers,
instead of attending to a duty that was so urgent on
them, employed themselves, as usual, in endeavors to
destroy the reputation of those who were' bold enough
to remind them of it. They caused it to be industriously circulated through the nation, that the distresses
of Ireland were of a nature hard to be traced to the
true source, that they had been monstrously magnified, and that, in particular, the official reports from
Ireland had given the lie (that was their phrase) to
Lord Rockingham's representations: and attributing
the origin of the Irish proceedings wholly to us, they
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ. 225
asserted that everything done in Parliament upon
the subject was with a view of stirring up rebellion;
"that neither the Irish legislature nor their Constituents had signified any dissatisfaction at the relief
obtained in the session preceding the last; that, to
convince both of the impropriety of their peaceable
conduct, opposition, by making demands in the name
of Ireland, pointed out what she might extort from
Great Britain; that the facility with which relief was
(formerly) granted, instead of satisfying opposition,
was calculated to create new demands; these denlands, as they interfered with the commerce of
Great Britain, were certain of being opposed, --a
circumstance which could not fail to create that desirable confusion which suits the views of the party;
that they (the Irish) had long felt their own misery,
without knowing well from whence it came; our worthy
patriots, by pointing out Great Britain as the cause of
Irish distress, may have some chance of rousing Irish
resentment. " This I quote from a pamphlet as perfectly contemptible in point of writing as it is false in
its facts and wicked in its design: but as it is written
under the authority of ministers, by one of their principal literary pensioners, and was circulated with
great diligence, and, as I am credibly informed, at a
considerable expense to the public, I use the words of
that book to let you see in what manner the friends
and patrons of Ireland, the heroes of your Parliament, represented all efforts for your relief here,
what means they took to dispose the minds of the
people towards that great object, and what encouragement they gave to all who should choose to exert
themselves in your favor. Their unwearied endeavors were not wholly without success, and the unthinkVOL. VI. 15
? ? ? ? 226 LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ.
ing people in many places became ill-affected towards
us on this account. For the ministers proceeded in
your affairs just as they did with regard to those of
America. They always represented you as a parcel
of blockheads, without sense, or even feeling; that all
your words were only the echo of faction here; and
(as you have seen above) that you had not understanding enough to know that your trade was cramped by restrictive acts of the British Parliament, unless we
had, for factious purposes, given you the information.
They were so far from giving the least intimation of
the measures which have since taken place, that those
who were supposed the best to know their intentions
declared them impossible in the actual state of the
two kingdoms, and spoke of nothing but an act of
union, as the only way that could be found of giving
freedom of trade to Ireland, consistently with the
interests of this kingdom. Even when the session
opened, Lord North declared that he did not know
what remedy to apply to a disease of the cause of
which he was ignorant; and ministry not being then
entirely resolved how far they should submit to your
energy, they, by anticipation, set the above author
or some of his associates to fill the newspapers with
invectives against us, as distressing the minister by
extravagant demands in favor of Ireland.
I need not inform you, that everything they asserted of the steps taken in Ireland, as the result of
our machinations, was utterly false and groundless.
For myself, I seriously protest to you, that I neither
wrote a word or received a line upon any matter
relative to the trade of Ireland, or to the politics of it,
from the beginning of the last session to the day that
I was honored with your letter. It would be an af
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ. 227
front to the talents in the Irish Parliament to say one
word more.
What was done in Ireland during that period, in
and out of Parliament, never will be forgotten. You
raised an army new in its kind and adequate to its
purposes. It effected its end without its exertion. It
was not under the authority of law, most certainly,
but it derived from an authority still higher; and as
they say of faith, that it is not contrary to reason, but
above it, so this army did not so much contradict the
spirit of the law as supersede it. What you did in
the legislative body is above all praise. By your proceeding with regard to the supplies, you revived the grand use and characteristic benefit of Parliament,
which was on the point of being entirely lost amongst
us. These sentiments I never concealed, and never
shall; and Mr. Fox expressed them with his usual
power, when he spoke on the subject.
All this is very honorable to you. But in what
light must we see it? How are we to consider your
armament without commission from the crown, when
some of the first people in this kingdom have been refused arms, at the time they did not only not reject, but solicited the king's commissions? Here to arm
and embody would be represented as little less than
high treason, if done on private authority: with you
it receives the thanks of a Privy Counsellor of Great
Britain, who obeys the Irish House of Lords in that
point with pleasure, and is made Secretary of State,
the moment he lands here, for his reward. You
shortened the credit given to the crown to six months;
you hung up the public credit of your kingdom by a
thread; you refused to raise any taxes, whilst you
confessed the public debt and public exigencies to
? ? ? ? 228 LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ.
be great and urgent beyond example. You certainly
acted in a great style, and on sound and invincible
principles. But if we in the opposition, which fills
Ireland with such loyal horrors, had even attempted,
what we never did even attempt, the smallest delay or
the smallest limitation of supply, in order to a constitutional coercion of the crown, we should have been
decried by all the court and Tory mouths of this kingdom, as a desperate faction, aiming at the direct ruin
of the:country, and to surrender it bound hand and
foot to a foreign enemy. By actually doing what we
never ventured to attempt, you have paid your court
with such address, and have won so much favor with
his Majesty and his cabinet, that they have, of their
special grace and mere motion, raised you to new
titles, and, for the first time, in a speech from the
throne, complimented you with the appellation of
"faithful and loyal," --and, in order to insult our
low-spirited and degenerate obedience, have thrown
these epithets and your resistance together in our
teeth! What do you think were the feelings of every
man who looks upon Parliament in an higher light
than that of a market-overt for legalizing a base traffic of votes and pensions, when he saw you employ
such means of coercion to the crown, in order to
coerce our Parliament through that medium? Howmuch his Majesty is pleased with his part of the civility must be left to his own taste. But as to us, you declared to the world that you knew that the way of
bringing us to reason was to apply yourselves to the
true source of all our opinions and the only motive to
all our conduct! Now, it seems, you think yourselves
affronted, because a few of us express some indignation at the minister who has thought fit to strip us
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ. 229
stark naked, and expose the true state of our poxed
and pestilential habit to the world! Think or say
what you will in Ireland, I shall ever think it a crime
hardly to be expiated by his blood. He might, and
ought, by a longer continuance or by an earlier meeting of this Parliament, to have given us the credit of
some wisdom in foreseeing and anticipating an approaching force. So far from it, Lord Gower, coming out of his own cabinet, declares that one principal cause of his resignation was his not being able to prevail on the present minister to give any sort of application to this business. Even on the late meeting of Parliament, nothing determinate could be drawn from
him, or from any of his associates, until you had actually passed the short money bill, - which measure
they flattered themselves, and assured others, you
would never come up to. Disappointed in their expectation at [of? ] seeing the siege raised, they surrendered at discretion.
Judge, my dear Sir, of our surprise at finding your
censure directed against those whose only crime was
in accusing the ministers of not having prevented
your demands by our graces, of not having given
you the natural advantages of your country in the
most ample, the most early, and the most liberal
manner, and for not having given away authority
in such a manner as to insure friendship. That you
should make the panegyric of the ministers is what I
~xpected; because, in praising their bounty, you paid
t just compliment to your own force. But that you;hould rail at us, either individually or collectively,
s what I can scarcely think a natural proceeding. I,an easily conceive that gentlemen might grow frightrned at what they had done, - that they might im
? ? ? ? 230 LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ.
agine they had undertaken a business above their direction, -that, having obtained a state of independence for their country, they meant to take the deserted helm into their own hands, and supply by their very real abilities the total inefficacy of the nominal
government. All these might be real, and might be
very justifiable motives for their reconciling themselves cordially to the present court system. But I
do not so well discover the reasons that could induce
them, at the first feeble dawning of life in this country, to do all in their power to cast a cloud over it,
and to prevent the least hope of our effecting the necessary reformations which are aimed at in our Constitution and in our national economy.
But, it seems, I was silent at the passing the resolutions. Why, what had I to say? If I had
thought them too much, I should have been accused
of all endeavor to inflame England. If I should represent them as too little, I should have been charged
with a design of fomenting the discontents of Ireland
into actual rebellion. The Treasury bench represented that the affair was a matter of state: they represented it truly. I therefore only asked whether they
knew these propositions to be such as would satisfy
Ireland; for if they were so, they would satisfy me.
This did not indicate that I thought them too ample.
In this our silence (however dishonorable to Parliament) there was one advantage, - that the whole
passed, as far as it is gone, with complete unanimity,
and so quickly that there was no time left to excite
any opposition to it out of doors. In the West India
business, reasoning on what had lately passed in the
Parliament of Ireland, and on the mode in which it
was opened here, I thought I saw much matter of
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ. 231
perplexity. But I have now better reason than ever
to be pleased with my silence. If I had spoken, one
of the most honest and able men * in the Irish Parliament would probably have thought my observation an endeavor to sow dissension, which he was resolved
to prevent, - and one of the most ingenious and one
of the most amiable men t that ever graced yours or
any House of Parliament might have looked on it as
a chimera. In the silence I observed, I was strongly
countenanced (to say no more of it) by every gentleman of Ireland that I had the honor of conversing with in London. The only word, for that reason,
which I spoke, was to restrain a worthy county member, j who had received some communication from a great trading place in the county he represents, which,
if it had been opened to the House, would have led
to a perplexing discussion of one of the most troublesome matters that could arise in this business. I got up to put a stop to it; and I believe, if you knew
what the topic was, you would commend my discretion.
That it should be a matter of public discretion in
me to be silent on the affairs of Ireland is what on all
accounts I bitterly lament. I stated to the House
what I felt; and I felt, as strongly as human sensibility can feel, the extinction of my Parliamentary capacity, where I wished to use it most. When I
came into this Parliament, just fourteen years ago, -
into this Parliament, then, in vulgar opinion at least,
the presiding council of the greatest empire existing,
(and perhaps, all things considered, that ever did
exist,) obscure and a stranger as I was, I consid* Mr. Grattan.
? t Mr. Hussey Burgh: Mr. Stanley, member for Lancashire.
? ? ? 232 LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ.
ered myself as raised to the highest dignity to which
a creature of our species could aspire. In that opinion, one of the chief pleasures in my situation, what was first and uppermost in my thoughts, was the
hope, without injury to this country, to be somewhat useful to the place of my birth and education,
which in many respects, internal and external, I
thought ill and impolitically governed. But when I
found that the House, surrendering itself to the guidance of an authority, not grown out of an experienced wisdom and integrity, but out of the accidents of court
favor, had become the sport of the passions of men at
once rash and pusillanimous, -that it had even got
into the habit of refusing everything to reason and
surrendering everything to force, all my power of
obliging either my country or individuals was gone,
all the lustre of my imaginary rank was tarnished,
and I felt degraded even by my elevation. I said
this, or something to this effect. If it, gives offence
to Ireland, I am sorry for it: it was the reason I
gave for my silence; and it was, as far as it went,
the true one.
With you, this silence of mine and of others was
represented as factious, and as a discountenance to
the measure of your relief. Do you think us children? If it had been our wish to embroil matters,
and, for the sake of distressing ministry, to commit
the two kingdoms in a dispute, we had nothing to do
but (without at all condemning the propositions) to
have gone into the commercial detail of the objects
of them. It could not have been refused to us: and
you, who know the nature of business so well, must
know that this would have caused such delays, and
given rise during that delay to such discussions, as
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ. 233
all the wisdom of your favorite minister could never
have settled. But, indeed, you mistake your men.
We tremble at the idea of a disunion of these two
nations. The only thing in which we differ with you
is this, - that we do not think your attaching yourselves to the court and quarrelling with the independent part of this people is the way to promote the union of two free countries, or of holding them
together by the most natural and salutary ties.
You will be frightened, when you see this long
letter. I smile, when I consider the length of it myself. I never, that I remember, wrote any of the
same extent. But it shows me that the reproaches
of the country that I once belonged to, and in which
I still have a dearness of instinct more than I can
justify to reason, make a greater impression on me
than I had imagined. But parting words are admitted to be a little tedious, because they are not
likely to be renewed. If it will not be making yourself as troublesome to others as I am to you, I shall
be obliged to you, if you will show this, at their
greatest leisure, to the Speaker, to your excellent
kinsman, to Mr. Grattan, Mr. Yelverton, and Mr.
Daly: all these I have the honor of being personally known to, except Mr. Yelverton, to whom I am
only known by my obligations to him. If you
live in any habits with my old friend, the Provost,
I shall be glad that he, too, sees this my humble
apology.
Adieu! once more accept my best thanks for the
interest you take in me. Believe that it is received
by an heart not yet so old as to have lost its susceptibility. A11 here give you the best old-fashioned
? ? ? ? 234 LETTER TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ.
wishes of the season; and believe me, with the greatest truth and regard, My dear Sir,
Your most faithful and obliged humble servant,
EDMUND BURKE.
BEACONSFIELD, New Year's Day, 1780.
I am frightened at the trouble I give you and our
friends; but I recollect that you are mostly lawyers,
and habituated to read long, tiresome papers - and,
where your friendship is concerned, without a fee;
I am sure, too, that you will not act the lawyer in
scrutinizing too minutely every expression which my
haste may make me use. I forgot to mention my
friend O'Hara, and others; but you will communicate it as you please.
? ? ? ? LETTE R
TO JOHN MERLOTT, ESQ. *
DEAR SIR,-I am very unhappy to find that
my conduct in the business of Ireland, on a former occasion, had made many to be cold and indifferent who would otherwise have been warm in my favor. I really thought that events would have produced a quite contrary effect, and would have proved
to all the inhabitants of Bristol that it was no desire
of opposing myself to their wishes, but a certain
knowledge of the necessity of their affairs, and a
tender regard to their honor and interest, which induced me to take the part which I then took. They
placed me in a situation which might enable me to
discern what was fit to be done, on a consideration
of the relative circumstances of this country and all
its neighbors. This was what you could not so well
do yourselves; but you had a right to expect that
I should avail myself of the advantage which I derived from your favor. Under the impression of
this duty and this trust, I had endeavored to render, by preventive graces and concessions, every act
of power at the same time an act of lenity, - the
result of English bounty, and not of English timidity
and distress. I really flattered myself that the events
*An eminent merchant in the city of Bristol, of which Mr. Burke
was one of the representatives in Parliament. - It relates to the same
subject as the preceding Letter.
? ? ? ? 236 LETTER TO JOHN MERLOTT, ESQ.
which have proved beyond dispute the prudence of
such a maxim would have obtained pardon for me,
if not approbation. But if I have not been so fortunate, I do most sincerely regret my great loss,with this comfort, however, that, if I have disobliged my constituents, it was not in pursuit of any sinister interest or any party passion of my own, but in
endeavoring to save them from disgrace, along with
the whole community to which they and I belong.
I shall be concerned for this, and very much so;
but I should be more concerned, if, in gratifying a
present humor of theirs, I had rendered myself unworthy of their former or their future choice. I
confess that I could not bear to face my constituents
at the next general election, if I had been a rival
to Lord North in the glory of having refused some
small, insignificant concessions, in favor of Ireland,
to the arguments and supplications of English members of Parliament, - and in the very next session,
on the demand of forty thousand Irish bayonets, of
having made a speech of two hours long to prove
that my former conduct was founded upon no one
right principle, either of policy, justice, or commerce.
I never heard a more elaborate, more able, more convincing, and more shameful speech. The debater
obtained credit, but the statesman was disgraced
forever. Amends were made for having refused
small, but timely concessions, by an unlimited and
untimely surrender, not only of every one of the
objects of former restraints, but virtually of the
whole legislative power itself which had made them.
For it is not necessary to inform you, that the unfortunate Parliament of this kingdom did not dare
to qualify the very liberty she gave of trading with
? ? ? ?
