The confiscations, the public auctions, the private grants, the plantations, the transplantations,
which formerly animated so many adventurers, even
among sober citizens, to such Irish expeditions, and
which possibly might have animated some of them to
the American, can have no existence in the case that
we suppose.
which formerly animated so many adventurers, even
among sober citizens, to such Irish expeditions, and
which possibly might have animated some of them to
the American, can have no existence in the case that
we suppose.
Edmund Burke
I think I had seen all of them,
except the formula of association. I confess they appear to me to contain matter mischievous, and capable of giving alarm, if the spirit in which they are written should be found to make any considerable
progress. But I am at a loss to know how to apply
them as objections to the case now before us. When
I find that the aeneral Committee which acts for the
Roman Catholics in Dublin prefers the association
proposed in the written draught you have sent me to
a respectful application in Parliaiiient, I shall think
the persons who sign such a paper to be unworthy
of any privilege which may be thought fit to be
granted, and that such men ought, by name, to be
excepted firm any benefit under the Constitution to
which they offer this violence. But I do not find that
this form of a seditious league has been signed by
any person whatsoever, either on the part of the supposed projectors, or on the part of those whom it is
? ? ? ? LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE. 287
calculated to seduce. I do not find, on inquiry, that
such a thing was mentioned, or even remotely alluded to, in the general meeting of the Catholics from
which so much violence was apprehended. I have
considered the other publications, signed by individuals on the part of certain societies, -'I may mistake,
for I have not the honor of knowing them personally,
but I take Mr. Butler and Mr. Tandy not to be Catholics, but members of the Established Church. Not
one that I recollect of these publications, which you
and I equally dislike, appears to be written by persons of that persuasion. Now, if, whilst a man is dutifully soliciting a favor from Parliament, any person should choose in an improper manner to show his
inclination towards the cause depending, and if that
must destroy the cause of the petitioner, then, not
only the petitioner, but the legislature itself, is in
the power of any weak friend or artful enemy that
the supplicant or that the Parliament may have.
A man must be judged by his own actions only.
Certain Protestant Dissenters make seditious propositions to the Catholics, wlhich it does not appear that
they have yet accepted. It would be strange that the
tempter should escape all punishment, and that he
who, under circumstances full of seduction and full
of provocation, has resisted the temptation should
incur the penalty. You know, that, with regard
to the Dissenters, who are stated to be the chief
movers in this vile scheme of altering the principles of election to a right of voting by the head,
you are not able (if you ought even to wish such
a thing) to deprive them of any part of the franchises
and privileges which they hold on a footing of perfect equality with yourselves. They may do what
? ? ? ? 288 LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE.
they please with constitutional implulity; but the
others cannot even listen with civility to all invitation from them to an ill-judged scheme of liberty, without forfeiting forever all hopes of any of those
liberties which we admit to be sober and rational.
It is known, I believe, that the greater as well as
the sounder part of our excluded countrymen have
not adopted the wild ideas and wilder engagements
which have been held out to them, but have rather
chosen to hope small and safe concessions from the
legal power than boundless objects from trouble and
confusion. This mode of action seems to me to mark
men of sobriety, and to distinguish them from those
who are intemperate, from circumstance or from na,ture. But why do they not instantly disclaim and disavow those who make such advances to them?
In this, too, in my opinion, they show themselves
no less sober and circumspect. In the present moment nothing short of insanity could induce them
to take such a step. Pray consider the circumstances. Disclaim, says somebody, all union with the Dissenters; -- right. -- But when this your inlljunction is obeyed, shall I obtain the object which I solicit from you? - Oh, no, nothing at all like it! - But,
in punishing us, by an exclusion from the Constitution through the great gate, for having been invited to enter into it by a postern, will you punish by deprivation of their privileges, or mulct in any other way, those who have tempted us? -Far from it;
we mean to preserve all their liberties and immunlities, as our life-blood. We mean to cultivate them, as brethren whom we love and respect; - with you we
have no fellowship. We can bear with patience
their enmity to ourselves; but their friendship with
? ? ? ? LETTER TO SIR HERC ULES LANGRISHE. 289
you we will not endure. But mark it well! All our
quarrels with them are always to be revenged upon
you. Formerly, it is notorious that we should have
resented with the highest indignation your presuming to show any ill-will to them. You must not suffer them, now, to show any good-will to you. Know -- and take it once for all --that it is, and ever has
been, and ever will be, a fundamental maxim in our
politics, that you are not to have any part or shadow or name of interest whatever in our state; that
we look upon you as under an irreversible outlawry
from our Constitution, - as perpetual and unalliable
aliens.
Such, my dear Sir, is the plain nature of the argument drawn from the Revolution maxims, enfoaced
by a supposed disposition in the Catholics to unite
with the Dissenters. Such it is, though it were
clothed in never such bland and civil forms, and
wrapped up, as a poet says, in a thousand " artful
folds of sacred lawn. " For my own part, I do not
know in what manner to shape such arguments, so
as to obtain admission for them into a rational understanding. Everything of this kind is to be reduced at last to threats of power. I cannot say, Vce victis! and then throw the sword into the scale. I
have no sword; and if I had, in this case, most certainly, I would not use it as a makeweight in political
reasoning.
Observe, on these principles, the difference between
the procedure of the Parliament and the Dissenters
towards the people in question. One employs courtship, the other force. The Dissenters offer bribes,
the Parliament nothing but'the front negatif of a
stern and forbidding authority. A man may be very
VOL. IV. 19
? ? ? ? 290 LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE.
wrong in his ideas of what is good for him. But no
mall affronts me, nor can therefore justify my affronting him, by offering to make me as happy as himself, according to his own ideas of happiness. This the
Dissenters do to the Catholics. You are on the dif
ferent extremes. The Dissenters offer, with regard
to constitutional rights and civil advantages of all
sorts, everything; you refuse everything. With them,
there is boundless, though not very assured hope;
with you, a very sure and very unqualified despair.
The terms of alliance from the Dissenters offer a representation of the commons, chosen out of the people by the head. This is absurdly and dangerously large,
in my opinion; and that scheme of election is known
to have been at all times perfectly odious to me. But
I cannot think it right of course to punish the Irish
Roman Catholics by an universal exclusion, because
others, whom you would not punish at all, propose
an universal admission. I cannot dissemble to myself, that, in this very kingdom, many persons who
are not in the situation of the Irish Catholics, but
who, on the contrary, enjoy the full benefit of the
Constitution as it stands, and some of whom, from
the effect of their fortunes, enjoy it in a large meas-;ure, had some years ago associated to procure great and undefined changes (they considered theml as reforms) in the popular part of the Constitution. Our friend, the late Mr. Flood, (no slight man,) proposed
in his place, and in my hearing, a representation not
much less extensive than this, for England, - in
which every house was to be inhabited by a voter, in
addition to all the actual votes by other titles (some
of the corporate) whi6h we know do not require a
house or a shed. Can I forget that a person of the
? ? ? ? LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE. 291
very highest rank, of very large fortune, and of the
first class of ability, brought a bill into the House of
Lords, in the head-quarters of aristocracy, containing
identically the same project for the supposed adoption of which by a club or two it is thought right to
extinguish all hopes in the Roman Catholics of Ireland? I cannot say it was very eagerly embraced or
very warmly pursued. But the Lords neither did
disavow the bill, nor treat it with any disregard, nor
express any sort of disapprobation of its noble au
thor, who has never lost, with king or people, the
least degree of the respect and consideration which
so justly belongs to him.
I am not at all enamored, as I have told you, with
this plan of representation; as little do I relish any
bandings or associations for procuring it. But if the
question was to be put to you and me, -- Universal
popular representation, or none at all for us and ours,
-we should find ourselves in a very awkward position. I do not like this kind of dilemmas, especially
when they are practical.
Then, since our oldest fundamental laws follow, or
rather couple, freehold with franchise, - since no principle of the Revolution shakes these liberties, - since
the oldest and one of the best monuments of the Constitution demands for the Irish the privilege which
they supplicate, - since the principles of the Revolution coincide with the declarations of the Great Charter, - since the practice of the Revolution, in this point, did not contradict its principles, - since, from
that event, twenty-five years had elapsed, before a
domineering party, on a party principle, had ventured
to disfranchise, without any proof whatsoever of abuse,
the greater part of the community, - since the king's
? ? ? ? 292 LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE.
coronation oath does not stand in his way to the performance of his duty to all his subjects, - since you
have given to all other Dissenters these privileges
without limit which are hitherto withheld without
any limitation whatsoever from the Catholics, - since
no nation in the world has ever been known to exclude so great a body of men (not born slaves) from
the civil state, and all the benefits of its Constitution,
- the whole question comes before Parliament as a
matter for its prudence. I do not put the thing on a
question of right. That discretion, which in judicature is well said by Lord Coke to be a crooked cord,
in legislature is a golden rule. Supplicants ought
not to appear too much in the character of litigants.
If the subject thinks so highly and reverently of the
sovereign authority as not to claim anything of right,
so that it may seem to be independent of the power
and free choice of its government, - and if the sovereign, on his part, considers the advantages of the subjects as their right, and all their reasonable wishes as so many claims, - in the fortunate conjunction of
these mutual dispositions are laid the foundations of a
happy and prosperous commonwealth. For my own
part, desiring of all things that the authority of the
legislature under which I was born, and which I cherish, not only with a dutiful awe, but with a partial
and cordial affection, to be maintained in the utmost
possible respect, I never will suffer myself to suppose
that at bottom their discretion will be found to be
at variance with their justice.
The whole being at discretion, I beg leave just
to suggest some matters for your consideration:Whether the government in Church or State is likely
to be more secure by continuing causes of grounded
? ? ? ? LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE. 293
discontent to a very great number (say two millions)
of the subjects? or whether the Constitution, combined and balanced as it is, will be rendered more
solid by depriving so large a part of the people of all
concern or interest or share in its representation,
actual or virtual? I here mean to lay an emphasis
on the word virtual. Virtual representation is that
ill which there is a communion of interests and a
sympathy in feelings and desires between those who
act in the name of any description of people and the
people in whose name they act, though the trustees
are not actually chosen by them. This is virtual representation. Such a representation I think to be in
many cases even better than the actual. It possesses most of its advantages, and is free from many of
its inconveniences; it corrects the irregularities in
the literal representation, when the shifting current
of human affairs or the acting of public interests in
different ways carry it obliquely from its first line of
direction. The people may err in their choice; but
common interest and common sentiment are rarely
mistaken. But this sort of virtual representation
cannot have a long or sure existence, if it has not a
substratum in the actual. The member must have
some relation to the constituent. As things stand,
the Catholic, as a Catholic, and belonging to a description, has no virtual relation to the representative,-but the contrary. There is a relation in mutual obligation. Gratitude may not always have a very lasting power; but the frequent recurrence of an application for favors will revive and refresh it, and will
necessarily produce some degree of mutual attention.
It will produce, at least, acquaintance. The several
descriptions of people will not be kept so much apart
? ? ? ? 294 LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE.
as they now are, as if they were not only separate
nations, but separate species. The stigma and reproach, the hideous mask will be taken off, and men will see each other as they are. Sure I am that
there have been thousands in Ireland who have never
conversed with a Roman Catholic in their whole lives,
unless they happened to talk to their gardener's workmen, or to ask their way, when they had lost it in their sports, - or, at best, who had known them only
as footmen, or other domestics, of the second and
third order: and so averse were they, some time ago,
to have them near their persons, that they would not
employ even those who could never find their way
beyond the stable. I well remember a great, and in
many respects a good man, who advertised for a
blacksmith, but at the same time added, he must
be a Protestant. It is impossible that such a state
of things, though natural goodness in many persons
will undoubtedly make exceptions, must not produce
alienation on the one side and pride and insolence
on the other.
Reduced to a question of discretion, and that discretion exercised solely upon what will appear best for the conservation of the state on its present basis,
I should recommend it to your serious thoughts,
whether the narrowing of the foundation is always
the best way to secure the building? The body of
disfranchised men will not be perfectly satisfied to
remain always in that state. If they are not satisfied, you have two millions of subjects in your bosom full of uneasiness: not that they cannot overturn the
Act of Settlement, and put themselves and you under
an arbitrary master; or that they are not permitted
to spawn a hydra of wild republics, on principles of a
? ? ? ? LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE. 295
pretended natural equality in man; but because you
will not suffer them to enjoy the ancient, fundamental, tried advantages of a British Constitution, - that
you will not permit them to profit of the protection
of a common father or the freedom of common citizens, and that the only reason which can be assigned
for this disfranchisement has a tendency more deeply
to ulcerate their minds than the act of exclusion itself. What the consequence of such feelings must
be it is for you to look to. To warn is not to
menace.
I am far from asserting that men will not excite
disturbances without just cause. I know that such
an assertion is not true. But neither is it true that
disturbances have never just complaints for their origin. I am sure that it is hardly prudent to furnish
them with such causes of complaint as every man
who thinks the British Constitution a benefit may
think at least colorable and plausible.
Several are in dread of the manceuvres of certain
persons among the Dissenters, who turn this ill humor to their own ill purposes. You know, better
than I can, how much these proceedings of certain
among the Dissenters are to be feared. You are to
weigh, with the temper which is natural to you,
whether it may be for the safety of our establishment that the Catholics should be ultimately persuaded that they have no hope to enter into the Constitution but through the Dissenters. Think whether this be the way to prevent or dissolve factious combinations against the Church or
the State. Reflect seriously on the possible consequences of keeping in the heart of your country a
bank of discontent, every hour accumulating, upon
? ? ? ? 296 LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE.
which every description of seditious men may draw
at pleasure. They whose principles of faction will
dispose them to the establishment of an arbitrary
monarchy will find a nation of men who have no
sort of interest in freedom, but who will have an
interest in that equality of justice or favor with
which a wise despot must view all his subjects who
do not attack the foundations of his power. Love of
liberty itself may, in such men, become the means of
establishing an arbitrary domination. On the other
hand, they who wish for a democratic republic will
find a set of men who have no choice between civil
servitude and the entire ruin of a mixed Constitution.
Suppose the people of Ireland divided into three
parts. Of these, (I speak within compass,) two are
Catholic; of the remaining third, one half is composed of Dissenters. There is no natural union between those descriptions. It may be produced. If the two parts Catholic be driven into a close confederacy with half the third part of Protestants, with a
view to a change in the Constitution in Church or
State or both, and you rest the whole of their security on a handful of gentlemen, clergy, and their
dependents, - compute the strength you have in Ireland, to oppose to grounded discontent, to capricious
innovation, to blind popular fury, and to ambitious,
turbulent intrigue.
You mention that the minds of some gentlemen
are a good deal heated, and that it is often said,
that, rather than submit to such persons, having a
share in their franchises, they would throw up their
independence, and precipitate an union with Great
Britain. I have heard a discussion concerning such
? ? ? ? LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE. 297
an union amongst all sorts of men ever since I remember anything. For my own part, I have never
been able to bring my mind to anythling clear and
decisive upon the subject. There cannot be a more
arduous question. As far as I can form an opinion,
it would not be for the mutual advantage of the two
kingdoms. Persons, however, more able than I am
think otherwise. But whatever the merits of this
union may be, to make it a menace, it must be shown
to be an evil, and an evil more particularly to those
who are threatened with it than to those who hold it
out as a terror. I really do not see how this threat of
an union can operate, or that the Catholics are more
likely to be losers by that measure than the churchmen.
The humors of the people, and of politicians too,
are so variable in themselves, and are so much under
the occasional influence of some leading men, that it
is impossible to know what turn the public mind here
would take on such an event. There is but one thing
certain concerning it. Great divisions and vehement
passions would precede this union, both on the measure itself and on its terms; and particularly, this very question of a share in the representation for the Catholics, from whence the project of an union originated, would form a principal part in the discussion; and
in the temper in which some gentlemen seem inclined
to throw themselves, by a sort of high, indignant passion, into the scheme, those points would not be deliberated with all possible calmness.
From my best observation, I should greatly doubt,
whether, in the end, these gentlemen would obtain
their object, so as to make the exclusion of two millions of their countrymen a fundamental article in
? ? ? ? 298 LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE.
the union. The demand would be of a nature quite
unprecedented. You might obtain the union; and
yet a gentleman, who, under the new union establishment, would aspire to the honor of representing his
county, might possibly be as much obliged, as he
may fear to be under the old separate establishment,
to the unsupportable mortification of asking his neighbors, who have a different opinion concerning the elements in the sacrament, for their votes. I believe, nay, I am sure, that the people of Great
Britain, with or without an union, might be depended
upon, in cases of any real danger, to aid the government of Ireland, with the same cordiality as they
would support their own, against any wicked attempts to shake the security of the happy Constitution in Church and State. But before Great Britain engages in any quarrel, the cause of the dispute would
certainly be a part of her consideration. If confusions
should arise in that kingdom from too steady an attachment to a proscriptive, monopolizing system, and
from the resolution of regarding the franchise, and
in it the security of the subject, as belonging. rather
to religious opinions than to civil qualification and
civil conduct, I doubt whether you might quite certainly reckon on obtaining an aid of force from hence
for the support of that system. We might extend
your distractions to this country by taking part in
them. England will be indisposed, I suspect, to
send an army for the conquest of Ireland. What
was done in 1782 is a decisive proof of her sentiments of justice and moderation. She will not be
fond of making another American war in Ireland.
The principles of such a war would but too much
resemble the former one. The well-disposed and
? ? ? ? LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE. 299
the ill-disposed in England would (for different reasons perhaps) be equally averse to such an enterprise.
The confiscations, the public auctions, the private grants, the plantations, the transplantations,
which formerly animated so many adventurers, even
among sober citizens, to such Irish expeditions, and
which possibly might have animated some of them to
the American, can have no existence in the case that
we suppose.
Let us form a supposition, (no foolish or ungrounded supposition,) that, in an age when men are infinitely more disposed to heat themselves with political than religious controversies, the former should entirely prevail, as we see that in some places they
have prevailed, over the latter, - and that the Catholics of Ireland, from the courtship paid them on the
one hand, and the high tone of refusal on the other,
should, in order to enter into all the rights of subjects, all become Protestant Dissenters, and, as the
others do, take all your oaths. They would all obtain their civil objects; and the change, for anything
I know to the contrary, (in the dark as I am about
the Protestant Dissenting tenets,) might be of use
to the health of their souls. But what security our
Constitution, in Church or State, could derive from
that event, I cannot possibly discern. Depend upon
it, it is as true as Nature is true, that, if you force
them out of the religion of habit, education, or opinion, it is not to yours they will ever go. Shaken in
their minds, they will go to that where the dogmas
are fewest,- where they are the most uncertain, -
where they lead them the least to a consideration
of what they have abandoned. They will go to that
uniformly democratic system to whose first move
? ? ? ? 300 LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE.
ments they owed their emancipation. I recommend
you seriously to turn this in your mind. Believe
that it requires your best and maturest thoughts.
Take what course you please, --union or no union;
whether the people remain Catholics or become Protestant Dissenters, sure it is that the present state of
monopoly cannot continue.
If England were animated, as I think she is not,
with her former spirit of domination, and with the
strong theological hatred which she once cherished
for that description of her fellow-Christians and fellow-subjects, I am yet convinced, that, after the fullest success in a ruinous struggle, you would be obliged to abandon that monopoly. We were obliged
to do this, even when everything promised success,
in the American business. If you should make this
experiment at last, under the pressure of any necessity, you never can do it well. But if, instead of
falling into a passion, the leading gentlemen of the
country themselves should undertake the business
cheerfully, and with hearty affection towards it,
great advantages would follow. What is forced
cannot be modified: but here you may measure
your concessions.
It is a consideration of great moment, that you
make the desired admission without altering the system of your representation in the smallest degree or
in any part. You may leave that deliberation of a
Parliamentary change or reform, if ever you should
think fit to engage ini it, uncomplicated and unembarrassed with the other question. Whereas, if they
are mixed and confounded, as some people attempt
to mix and confound them, no one can answer for the
effects on the Constitution itself.
? ? ? ? LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE. 301
There is another advantage in taking up this business singly and by an arrangement for the single object. It is that you may proceed by degrees. We must all obey the great law of change. It is the
most powerful law of Nature, and the means perhaps of its conservation. All we can do, and that
human wisdom can do, is to provide that the change
shall proceed by insensible degrees. This has all the
benefits which may be in change, without any of the
inconveniences of mutation. Everything is provided
for as it arrives. This mode will, on the one hand,
prevent the unfixing old interests at once: a thing
which is apt to breed a black and sullen discontent
in those who are at once dispossessed. of all their influence and consideration. This gradual course, on
the other side, will prevent men long under depression from being intoxicated with a large draught of
new power, which they always abuse with a licentious
insolence. But, wishing, as I do, the change to be
gradual and cautious, I would, in my first steps, lean
rather to the side of enlargement than restriction.
It is one excellence of our Constitution, that all
our rights of provincial election regard rather property than person. It is another, that the rights which
approach more nearly to the personal are most of
them corporate, and suppose a restrained and strict
education of seven years in some useful occupation.
In both cases the practice may have slid from the
principle. The standard of qualification in both cases
may be so low, or not so judiciously chosen, as in
some degree to frustrate the end. But all this is
for your prudence in the case before you. You
may rise a step or two the qualification of the Catholic voters. But if you were to-morrow to put the
? ? ? ? 302 LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE.
Catholic freeholder on the footing of the most favored forty-shilling Protestant Dissenter, you know,
that, such is the actual state of Ireland, this would
not make a sensible alteration in almost any one election in the kingdom. The effect in their favor, even defensively, would be infinitely slow. But it would
be healing; it would be satisfactory and protecting.
The stigma would be removed. By admitting settled,
permanent substance in lieu of the numbers, you
would avoid the great danger of our time, that of
setting up number against property. The numbers
ought never to be neglected, because (besides what
is due to them as men) collectively, though not individually, they have great property: they ought to have, therefore, protection; they ought to have security; they ought to have even consideration: but they ought not to predominate.
My dear Sir, I have nearly done. I meant to write
you a long letter: I have written a long dissertation.
I might have done it earlier and better. I might
have been more forcible and more clear, if I had not
been interrupted as I have been; and this obliges
me not to write to you in my own hand. Though
my hand but signs it, my heart goes with what I
have written. Since I could think at all, those have
been my thoughts. You know that thirty-two years
ago they were as fully matured in my mind as they
are now. A letter of mine to Lord Kenmare, though
not by my desire, and full of lesser mistakes, has
been printed in Dublin. It was written ten or twelve
years ago, at the time when I began the employment,
which I have not yet finished, in favor of another
distressed people, injured by those who have vanquished them, or stolen a dominion over them. It
? ? ? ? LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE. 303
contained my sentiments then: you will see how far
they accord with my sentiments now. Time has more
and more confirmed me in them all. The present
circumstances fix them deeper in my mind.
I voted last session, if a particular vote could be
distinguished in unanimity, for an establishment of
the Church of England conjointly with the establishment, which was made some years before by act of
Parliament, of the Roman Catholic, in the French conquered country of Canada. At the time of making
this English ecclesiastical establishment, we did not
think it necessary for its safety to destroy the former Gallican Church settlement. In our first act we
settled a government altogether monarchical, or nearly so. In that system, the Canadian Catholics were
far from being deprived of the advantages or distinctions, of any kind, which they enjoyed under their
former monarchy. It is true that some people, and
amongst them one eminent divine, predicted at that
time that by this step we should lose our dominions
in America. He foretold that the Pope would send
his indulgences hither; that the Canadians would
fall in with France, would declare independence, and
draw or force our colonies into the same design.
The independence happened according to his prediction; but in directly the reverse order. All our Elglish Protestant colonies revolted. They joined themselves to France; and it so happened that Popish Canada was the only place which preserved its fidelity, the only place in which France got no footing,
the only peopled colony which now remains to Great
Britain. Vain are all the prognostics taken from
ideas and passions, which survive the state of things
which gave rise to them. When last year we gave
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a popular representation to the same Canada by the
choice of the landholders, and an aristocratic represelltation at the choice of the crown, neither was
the choice of the crown nor the election of the landholders limited by a consideration of religion. We
had no dread for the Protestant Church which we
settled there, because we permitted the French Catholics, in the utmost latitude of the description, to be free subjects. They are good subjects, I have no
doubt; but I will not allow that any French Canadian
Catholics are better men or better citizens than the
Irish of the same communion. Passing firom the extremity of the West to the extremity almost of the East, I have been many years (now entering into
the twelfth) employed in supporting the rights, privileges, laws, and immunities of a very remote people. I have not as yet been able to finish my task. I have
struggled through much discouragement and much
opposition, much obloquy, much calumny, for a people with whom I have no tie but the common bond
of mankind. In this I have not been left alone. We
did not fly from our undertaking because the people
are Mahometans or Pagans, and that a great majority
of the Christians amongst them are Papists. Some
gentlemen in Ireland, I dare say, have good reasons
for what they may do, which do not occur to me.
I do not presume to condemn them; but, thinking
and acting as I have done towards these remote nations, I should not know how to show my face, here or in Ireland, if I should say that all the Pagans, all
the Mussulmen, and even all the Papists, (since they
must form the highest stage in the climax of evil,)
are worthy of a liberal and honorable condition, except those of one of the descriptions, which forms
? ? ? ? LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE. 305
the majority of the inhabitants of the country in
which you and I were born. If such are the Catholics of Ireland, ill-natured and unjust people, from
our own data, may be inclined not to think better
of the Protestants of a soil which is supposed to
infuse into its sects a kind of venom unknown in
other places.
You hated the old system as early as I did. Your
first juvenile lance was broken against that giant. I
think you were even the first who attacked the grim
phantom. You have an exceedingly good understanding, very good humor, and the best heart in the world. The dictates of that temper and that heart, as
well as the policy pointed out by that understanding,
led you to abhor the old code. You abhorred it, as I
did, for its vicious perfection. For I must do it justice: it was a complete system, full of coherence and consistency, well digested and well composed in all
its parts. It was a machine of wise and elaborate
contrivance, and as well fitted for the oppression,
impoverishment, and degradation of a people, and
the debasement, in them, of human nature itself, as
ever proceeded from the perverted ingenuity of man.
It is a thing humiliating enough, that we are doubtful of the effect of the medicines we compound, -- we are sure of our poisons. My opinion ever was, (in
which I heartily agree with those that admired the
old code,) that it was so constructed, that, if there
was once a breach in any essential part of it, the
ruin of the whole, or nearly of the whole, was, at
some time or other, a certainty. For that reason I
honor and shall forever honor and love you, and
those who first caused it to stagger, crack, and gape.
Others may finish; the beginners have the glory;
VOL. IV. 20
? ? ? ? 306 LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE.
and, take what part you please at this hour, (I think you will take the best,) your first services will never be forgotten by a grateful country. Adieu! Present my best regards to those I know, - and as many as I know in our country I honor. There never was so much ability, nor, I believe, virtue in it. They have
a task worthy of both. I doubt not they will perform it, for the stability of the Church and State, and for the union and the separation of the people: for the union of the honest and peaceable of all sects; for their separation from all that is ill-intentioned and seditious in any of them.
BEACONSFIELD, January 3, 1792.
? ? ? ? HINTS FOR A MEMORIAL
TO BE DELIVERED TO
MONSIEUR DE M. M.
WRITTEN IN THE EARLY PART OF 1791
? ? ? ? HINTS FOR A MEMORIAL.
I HE King, my master, from his sincere desire of
keeping up a good correspondence with his Most
Christian Majesty and the French nation, has for some
time beheld with concern the condition into which
that sovereign and nation have fallen.
Notwithstanding the reality and the warmth of
those sentiments, his Britannic Majesty has hitherto
forborne in any manner to take part in their affairs,
in hopes that the common interest of king and subjects would render all parties sensible of the necessity of settling their government and their freedom upon principles of moderation, as the only means of
securing permanence to both these blessings, as well
as internal and external tranquillity to the kingdom
of France, and to all Europe.
His Britannic Majesty finds, to his great regret,
that his hopes have not been realized. He finds that
confusions and disorders have rather increased than
diminished, and that they now threaten to proceed to
dangerous extremities.
In this situation of things, the same regard to a
neighboring sovereign living in friendship with Great
Britain, the same spirit of good-will to the kingdom
of France, the same regard to the general tranquillity, which have caused him to view with concern
the growth and continuance of the present disorders,
have induced the King of Great Britain to interpose
? ? ? ? 310 HINTS FOR A MEMORIAL.
his good offices towards a reconcilement of those unhappy differences. This his Majesty does with the most cordial regard to the good of all descriptions
concerned, and with the most perfect sincerity, wholly
removing from his royal mind all memory of every
circumstance which might impede him in the execution of a plan of benevolence which he ha-s so much at heart.
His Majesty, having always thought it his greatest
glory that he rules over a people perfectly and solidly, because soberly, rationally, and legally free, call never be supposed to proceed in offering thus his
royal mediation, but with an unaffected desire and
full resolution to consider the settlement of a free
constitution in France as the very basis of ally agreement between the sovereign and those of his subjects who are unhappily at variance with him, - to guaranty it to them, if it should be desired, in the, most solemn and authentic manner, and to do all that in
him lies to procure the like guaranty from other
powers.
His Britannic Majesty, in the same manner, assures the Most Christian King that he knows too well
and values too highly what is due to the dignity and
rights of crowned heads, and to the implied faith of
treaties which have always been made with the crown
of France, ever to listen to any proposition by which
that monarchy shall be despoiled of all its rights, so
essential for the support of the consideration of tlle
prince and the concord and welfare of the people.
If, unfortunately, a due attention should not be
paid to these his Majesty's benevolent and neighborly
offers, or if any circumstances should prevent the
Most Christian King from acceding (as his Majesty
? ? ? ? HINTS FOR A MEMORIAL. 311
has no doubt he is well disposed to do) to this healing mediation in favor of himself and all his subjects, his Majesty has commanded me to take leave of this
court, as not conceiving it to be suitable to the dignity of his crown, and to what he owes to his faithful people, any longer to keep a public minister at the
court of a sovereign who is not in possession of his
own liberty.
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS
ON
FRENCH AFFAIRS,
ETC. , ETC.
WRITTEN IN DECEMBER, 1791.
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
N all our transactions with France, ald at all periods, we have treated with that state on the footing of a monarchy. Monarchy was considered in all the external relations of that kingdom with every
power in Europe as its legal and constitutional government, and that in which alone its federal capacity
was vested.
It is not yet a year since Monsieur de MIontmorin's
Montmorin formally, and with as little respect as can be imagined to the king, and to all
crowned heads, announced a total Revolution ill that
country. He has informed the British ministry that
its frame of government is wholly altered, - that he
is one of the ministers of the new system, - and, in
effect, that the king is no longer his master, (nor
does he even call him such,) but the "first of the
ministere," in the new system.
The second notification was that of the Acceptance
of the Con
king's acceptance of the new Constitution, stitution
accompanied with fanfaronades in the modern style of the French bureaus: things which have
much more the air and character of the saucy declamations of their clubs than the tone of regular office.
It has not been very usual to notify to foreign
courts anything concerning the internal arrange
ments of any state. In the present case, the cir
? ? ? ? 316 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
cumstance of these two notifications, with the observations with which they are attended, does not leave
it in the choice of the sovereigns of Christendom to
appear ignorant either of this French Revolution or
(what is more important) of its principles.
We know, that, very soon after this manifesto of
Monsieur de Montmorin, the king of France, in
whose name it was made, found himself obliged to
fly, with his whole family, --leaving behind him a
declaration in which he disavows and annuls that
Constitution, as having been the effect of force on
his person and usurpation on his authority. It is
equally notorious, that this unfortunate prince was,
with many circumstances of insult and outrage,
brought back prisoner by a deputation of the pretended National Assembly, and afterwards suspended by their authority from his government. Under equally notorious constraint, and under menaces of
total deposition, he has been compelled to accept
what they call a Constitution, and to agree to whatever else the usurped power which holds him in
confinement thinks proper to impose.
His next brother, who had fled with him, and his
third brother, who had fled before him, all the
princes of his blood who remained faithful to him,
and the flower of his magistracy, his clergy, and his
nobility, continue in foreign countries, protesting
against all acts done by him in his present situation, on the grounds upon which he had himself
protested against them at the time of his flight,with this addition, that they deny his very competence (as on good grounds they may) to abrogate the royalty, or the ancient constitutional orders of
the kingdom. In this protest they are joined by
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 317
three hundred of the late Assembly itself, and, in
effect, by a great part of the French nation. The
new government (so far as the people dare to disclose their sentiments) is disdained, I am persuaded,
by the greater number, -- who, as M. de La Fayette
complains, and as the truth is, have declined to take
any share in the new elections to the National Assembly, either as candidates or electors.
In this state of things, (that is, in the case of a
divided kingdom,) by the law of nations,* Great
Britain, like every other power, is free to take any
part she pleases. She may decline, with more or
less formality, according to her discretion, to acknowledge this new system; or she may recognize
it as a government de facto, setting aside all discussion of its original legality, and considering the ancient monarchy as at an end. The law of nations leaves our court open to its choice. We have no
direction but what is found in the well-understood
policy of the king and kingdom.
This declaration of a new species of government,
on new principles, (such it professes itself to be,) is
a real crisis in the politics of Europe. The conduct
which prudence ought to dictate to Great Britain
will not depend (as hitherto 6ur connection or quarrel with other states has for some time depended)
upon merely external relations, but in a great measure also upon the system which we may think it
right to adopt for the internal government of our
own country.
except the formula of association. I confess they appear to me to contain matter mischievous, and capable of giving alarm, if the spirit in which they are written should be found to make any considerable
progress. But I am at a loss to know how to apply
them as objections to the case now before us. When
I find that the aeneral Committee which acts for the
Roman Catholics in Dublin prefers the association
proposed in the written draught you have sent me to
a respectful application in Parliaiiient, I shall think
the persons who sign such a paper to be unworthy
of any privilege which may be thought fit to be
granted, and that such men ought, by name, to be
excepted firm any benefit under the Constitution to
which they offer this violence. But I do not find that
this form of a seditious league has been signed by
any person whatsoever, either on the part of the supposed projectors, or on the part of those whom it is
? ? ? ? LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE. 287
calculated to seduce. I do not find, on inquiry, that
such a thing was mentioned, or even remotely alluded to, in the general meeting of the Catholics from
which so much violence was apprehended. I have
considered the other publications, signed by individuals on the part of certain societies, -'I may mistake,
for I have not the honor of knowing them personally,
but I take Mr. Butler and Mr. Tandy not to be Catholics, but members of the Established Church. Not
one that I recollect of these publications, which you
and I equally dislike, appears to be written by persons of that persuasion. Now, if, whilst a man is dutifully soliciting a favor from Parliament, any person should choose in an improper manner to show his
inclination towards the cause depending, and if that
must destroy the cause of the petitioner, then, not
only the petitioner, but the legislature itself, is in
the power of any weak friend or artful enemy that
the supplicant or that the Parliament may have.
A man must be judged by his own actions only.
Certain Protestant Dissenters make seditious propositions to the Catholics, wlhich it does not appear that
they have yet accepted. It would be strange that the
tempter should escape all punishment, and that he
who, under circumstances full of seduction and full
of provocation, has resisted the temptation should
incur the penalty. You know, that, with regard
to the Dissenters, who are stated to be the chief
movers in this vile scheme of altering the principles of election to a right of voting by the head,
you are not able (if you ought even to wish such
a thing) to deprive them of any part of the franchises
and privileges which they hold on a footing of perfect equality with yourselves. They may do what
? ? ? ? 288 LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE.
they please with constitutional implulity; but the
others cannot even listen with civility to all invitation from them to an ill-judged scheme of liberty, without forfeiting forever all hopes of any of those
liberties which we admit to be sober and rational.
It is known, I believe, that the greater as well as
the sounder part of our excluded countrymen have
not adopted the wild ideas and wilder engagements
which have been held out to them, but have rather
chosen to hope small and safe concessions from the
legal power than boundless objects from trouble and
confusion. This mode of action seems to me to mark
men of sobriety, and to distinguish them from those
who are intemperate, from circumstance or from na,ture. But why do they not instantly disclaim and disavow those who make such advances to them?
In this, too, in my opinion, they show themselves
no less sober and circumspect. In the present moment nothing short of insanity could induce them
to take such a step. Pray consider the circumstances. Disclaim, says somebody, all union with the Dissenters; -- right. -- But when this your inlljunction is obeyed, shall I obtain the object which I solicit from you? - Oh, no, nothing at all like it! - But,
in punishing us, by an exclusion from the Constitution through the great gate, for having been invited to enter into it by a postern, will you punish by deprivation of their privileges, or mulct in any other way, those who have tempted us? -Far from it;
we mean to preserve all their liberties and immunlities, as our life-blood. We mean to cultivate them, as brethren whom we love and respect; - with you we
have no fellowship. We can bear with patience
their enmity to ourselves; but their friendship with
? ? ? ? LETTER TO SIR HERC ULES LANGRISHE. 289
you we will not endure. But mark it well! All our
quarrels with them are always to be revenged upon
you. Formerly, it is notorious that we should have
resented with the highest indignation your presuming to show any ill-will to them. You must not suffer them, now, to show any good-will to you. Know -- and take it once for all --that it is, and ever has
been, and ever will be, a fundamental maxim in our
politics, that you are not to have any part or shadow or name of interest whatever in our state; that
we look upon you as under an irreversible outlawry
from our Constitution, - as perpetual and unalliable
aliens.
Such, my dear Sir, is the plain nature of the argument drawn from the Revolution maxims, enfoaced
by a supposed disposition in the Catholics to unite
with the Dissenters. Such it is, though it were
clothed in never such bland and civil forms, and
wrapped up, as a poet says, in a thousand " artful
folds of sacred lawn. " For my own part, I do not
know in what manner to shape such arguments, so
as to obtain admission for them into a rational understanding. Everything of this kind is to be reduced at last to threats of power. I cannot say, Vce victis! and then throw the sword into the scale. I
have no sword; and if I had, in this case, most certainly, I would not use it as a makeweight in political
reasoning.
Observe, on these principles, the difference between
the procedure of the Parliament and the Dissenters
towards the people in question. One employs courtship, the other force. The Dissenters offer bribes,
the Parliament nothing but'the front negatif of a
stern and forbidding authority. A man may be very
VOL. IV. 19
? ? ? ? 290 LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE.
wrong in his ideas of what is good for him. But no
mall affronts me, nor can therefore justify my affronting him, by offering to make me as happy as himself, according to his own ideas of happiness. This the
Dissenters do to the Catholics. You are on the dif
ferent extremes. The Dissenters offer, with regard
to constitutional rights and civil advantages of all
sorts, everything; you refuse everything. With them,
there is boundless, though not very assured hope;
with you, a very sure and very unqualified despair.
The terms of alliance from the Dissenters offer a representation of the commons, chosen out of the people by the head. This is absurdly and dangerously large,
in my opinion; and that scheme of election is known
to have been at all times perfectly odious to me. But
I cannot think it right of course to punish the Irish
Roman Catholics by an universal exclusion, because
others, whom you would not punish at all, propose
an universal admission. I cannot dissemble to myself, that, in this very kingdom, many persons who
are not in the situation of the Irish Catholics, but
who, on the contrary, enjoy the full benefit of the
Constitution as it stands, and some of whom, from
the effect of their fortunes, enjoy it in a large meas-;ure, had some years ago associated to procure great and undefined changes (they considered theml as reforms) in the popular part of the Constitution. Our friend, the late Mr. Flood, (no slight man,) proposed
in his place, and in my hearing, a representation not
much less extensive than this, for England, - in
which every house was to be inhabited by a voter, in
addition to all the actual votes by other titles (some
of the corporate) whi6h we know do not require a
house or a shed. Can I forget that a person of the
? ? ? ? LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE. 291
very highest rank, of very large fortune, and of the
first class of ability, brought a bill into the House of
Lords, in the head-quarters of aristocracy, containing
identically the same project for the supposed adoption of which by a club or two it is thought right to
extinguish all hopes in the Roman Catholics of Ireland? I cannot say it was very eagerly embraced or
very warmly pursued. But the Lords neither did
disavow the bill, nor treat it with any disregard, nor
express any sort of disapprobation of its noble au
thor, who has never lost, with king or people, the
least degree of the respect and consideration which
so justly belongs to him.
I am not at all enamored, as I have told you, with
this plan of representation; as little do I relish any
bandings or associations for procuring it. But if the
question was to be put to you and me, -- Universal
popular representation, or none at all for us and ours,
-we should find ourselves in a very awkward position. I do not like this kind of dilemmas, especially
when they are practical.
Then, since our oldest fundamental laws follow, or
rather couple, freehold with franchise, - since no principle of the Revolution shakes these liberties, - since
the oldest and one of the best monuments of the Constitution demands for the Irish the privilege which
they supplicate, - since the principles of the Revolution coincide with the declarations of the Great Charter, - since the practice of the Revolution, in this point, did not contradict its principles, - since, from
that event, twenty-five years had elapsed, before a
domineering party, on a party principle, had ventured
to disfranchise, without any proof whatsoever of abuse,
the greater part of the community, - since the king's
? ? ? ? 292 LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE.
coronation oath does not stand in his way to the performance of his duty to all his subjects, - since you
have given to all other Dissenters these privileges
without limit which are hitherto withheld without
any limitation whatsoever from the Catholics, - since
no nation in the world has ever been known to exclude so great a body of men (not born slaves) from
the civil state, and all the benefits of its Constitution,
- the whole question comes before Parliament as a
matter for its prudence. I do not put the thing on a
question of right. That discretion, which in judicature is well said by Lord Coke to be a crooked cord,
in legislature is a golden rule. Supplicants ought
not to appear too much in the character of litigants.
If the subject thinks so highly and reverently of the
sovereign authority as not to claim anything of right,
so that it may seem to be independent of the power
and free choice of its government, - and if the sovereign, on his part, considers the advantages of the subjects as their right, and all their reasonable wishes as so many claims, - in the fortunate conjunction of
these mutual dispositions are laid the foundations of a
happy and prosperous commonwealth. For my own
part, desiring of all things that the authority of the
legislature under which I was born, and which I cherish, not only with a dutiful awe, but with a partial
and cordial affection, to be maintained in the utmost
possible respect, I never will suffer myself to suppose
that at bottom their discretion will be found to be
at variance with their justice.
The whole being at discretion, I beg leave just
to suggest some matters for your consideration:Whether the government in Church or State is likely
to be more secure by continuing causes of grounded
? ? ? ? LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE. 293
discontent to a very great number (say two millions)
of the subjects? or whether the Constitution, combined and balanced as it is, will be rendered more
solid by depriving so large a part of the people of all
concern or interest or share in its representation,
actual or virtual? I here mean to lay an emphasis
on the word virtual. Virtual representation is that
ill which there is a communion of interests and a
sympathy in feelings and desires between those who
act in the name of any description of people and the
people in whose name they act, though the trustees
are not actually chosen by them. This is virtual representation. Such a representation I think to be in
many cases even better than the actual. It possesses most of its advantages, and is free from many of
its inconveniences; it corrects the irregularities in
the literal representation, when the shifting current
of human affairs or the acting of public interests in
different ways carry it obliquely from its first line of
direction. The people may err in their choice; but
common interest and common sentiment are rarely
mistaken. But this sort of virtual representation
cannot have a long or sure existence, if it has not a
substratum in the actual. The member must have
some relation to the constituent. As things stand,
the Catholic, as a Catholic, and belonging to a description, has no virtual relation to the representative,-but the contrary. There is a relation in mutual obligation. Gratitude may not always have a very lasting power; but the frequent recurrence of an application for favors will revive and refresh it, and will
necessarily produce some degree of mutual attention.
It will produce, at least, acquaintance. The several
descriptions of people will not be kept so much apart
? ? ? ? 294 LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE.
as they now are, as if they were not only separate
nations, but separate species. The stigma and reproach, the hideous mask will be taken off, and men will see each other as they are. Sure I am that
there have been thousands in Ireland who have never
conversed with a Roman Catholic in their whole lives,
unless they happened to talk to their gardener's workmen, or to ask their way, when they had lost it in their sports, - or, at best, who had known them only
as footmen, or other domestics, of the second and
third order: and so averse were they, some time ago,
to have them near their persons, that they would not
employ even those who could never find their way
beyond the stable. I well remember a great, and in
many respects a good man, who advertised for a
blacksmith, but at the same time added, he must
be a Protestant. It is impossible that such a state
of things, though natural goodness in many persons
will undoubtedly make exceptions, must not produce
alienation on the one side and pride and insolence
on the other.
Reduced to a question of discretion, and that discretion exercised solely upon what will appear best for the conservation of the state on its present basis,
I should recommend it to your serious thoughts,
whether the narrowing of the foundation is always
the best way to secure the building? The body of
disfranchised men will not be perfectly satisfied to
remain always in that state. If they are not satisfied, you have two millions of subjects in your bosom full of uneasiness: not that they cannot overturn the
Act of Settlement, and put themselves and you under
an arbitrary master; or that they are not permitted
to spawn a hydra of wild republics, on principles of a
? ? ? ? LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE. 295
pretended natural equality in man; but because you
will not suffer them to enjoy the ancient, fundamental, tried advantages of a British Constitution, - that
you will not permit them to profit of the protection
of a common father or the freedom of common citizens, and that the only reason which can be assigned
for this disfranchisement has a tendency more deeply
to ulcerate their minds than the act of exclusion itself. What the consequence of such feelings must
be it is for you to look to. To warn is not to
menace.
I am far from asserting that men will not excite
disturbances without just cause. I know that such
an assertion is not true. But neither is it true that
disturbances have never just complaints for their origin. I am sure that it is hardly prudent to furnish
them with such causes of complaint as every man
who thinks the British Constitution a benefit may
think at least colorable and plausible.
Several are in dread of the manceuvres of certain
persons among the Dissenters, who turn this ill humor to their own ill purposes. You know, better
than I can, how much these proceedings of certain
among the Dissenters are to be feared. You are to
weigh, with the temper which is natural to you,
whether it may be for the safety of our establishment that the Catholics should be ultimately persuaded that they have no hope to enter into the Constitution but through the Dissenters. Think whether this be the way to prevent or dissolve factious combinations against the Church or
the State. Reflect seriously on the possible consequences of keeping in the heart of your country a
bank of discontent, every hour accumulating, upon
? ? ? ? 296 LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE.
which every description of seditious men may draw
at pleasure. They whose principles of faction will
dispose them to the establishment of an arbitrary
monarchy will find a nation of men who have no
sort of interest in freedom, but who will have an
interest in that equality of justice or favor with
which a wise despot must view all his subjects who
do not attack the foundations of his power. Love of
liberty itself may, in such men, become the means of
establishing an arbitrary domination. On the other
hand, they who wish for a democratic republic will
find a set of men who have no choice between civil
servitude and the entire ruin of a mixed Constitution.
Suppose the people of Ireland divided into three
parts. Of these, (I speak within compass,) two are
Catholic; of the remaining third, one half is composed of Dissenters. There is no natural union between those descriptions. It may be produced. If the two parts Catholic be driven into a close confederacy with half the third part of Protestants, with a
view to a change in the Constitution in Church or
State or both, and you rest the whole of their security on a handful of gentlemen, clergy, and their
dependents, - compute the strength you have in Ireland, to oppose to grounded discontent, to capricious
innovation, to blind popular fury, and to ambitious,
turbulent intrigue.
You mention that the minds of some gentlemen
are a good deal heated, and that it is often said,
that, rather than submit to such persons, having a
share in their franchises, they would throw up their
independence, and precipitate an union with Great
Britain. I have heard a discussion concerning such
? ? ? ? LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE. 297
an union amongst all sorts of men ever since I remember anything. For my own part, I have never
been able to bring my mind to anythling clear and
decisive upon the subject. There cannot be a more
arduous question. As far as I can form an opinion,
it would not be for the mutual advantage of the two
kingdoms. Persons, however, more able than I am
think otherwise. But whatever the merits of this
union may be, to make it a menace, it must be shown
to be an evil, and an evil more particularly to those
who are threatened with it than to those who hold it
out as a terror. I really do not see how this threat of
an union can operate, or that the Catholics are more
likely to be losers by that measure than the churchmen.
The humors of the people, and of politicians too,
are so variable in themselves, and are so much under
the occasional influence of some leading men, that it
is impossible to know what turn the public mind here
would take on such an event. There is but one thing
certain concerning it. Great divisions and vehement
passions would precede this union, both on the measure itself and on its terms; and particularly, this very question of a share in the representation for the Catholics, from whence the project of an union originated, would form a principal part in the discussion; and
in the temper in which some gentlemen seem inclined
to throw themselves, by a sort of high, indignant passion, into the scheme, those points would not be deliberated with all possible calmness.
From my best observation, I should greatly doubt,
whether, in the end, these gentlemen would obtain
their object, so as to make the exclusion of two millions of their countrymen a fundamental article in
? ? ? ? 298 LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE.
the union. The demand would be of a nature quite
unprecedented. You might obtain the union; and
yet a gentleman, who, under the new union establishment, would aspire to the honor of representing his
county, might possibly be as much obliged, as he
may fear to be under the old separate establishment,
to the unsupportable mortification of asking his neighbors, who have a different opinion concerning the elements in the sacrament, for their votes. I believe, nay, I am sure, that the people of Great
Britain, with or without an union, might be depended
upon, in cases of any real danger, to aid the government of Ireland, with the same cordiality as they
would support their own, against any wicked attempts to shake the security of the happy Constitution in Church and State. But before Great Britain engages in any quarrel, the cause of the dispute would
certainly be a part of her consideration. If confusions
should arise in that kingdom from too steady an attachment to a proscriptive, monopolizing system, and
from the resolution of regarding the franchise, and
in it the security of the subject, as belonging. rather
to religious opinions than to civil qualification and
civil conduct, I doubt whether you might quite certainly reckon on obtaining an aid of force from hence
for the support of that system. We might extend
your distractions to this country by taking part in
them. England will be indisposed, I suspect, to
send an army for the conquest of Ireland. What
was done in 1782 is a decisive proof of her sentiments of justice and moderation. She will not be
fond of making another American war in Ireland.
The principles of such a war would but too much
resemble the former one. The well-disposed and
? ? ? ? LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE. 299
the ill-disposed in England would (for different reasons perhaps) be equally averse to such an enterprise.
The confiscations, the public auctions, the private grants, the plantations, the transplantations,
which formerly animated so many adventurers, even
among sober citizens, to such Irish expeditions, and
which possibly might have animated some of them to
the American, can have no existence in the case that
we suppose.
Let us form a supposition, (no foolish or ungrounded supposition,) that, in an age when men are infinitely more disposed to heat themselves with political than religious controversies, the former should entirely prevail, as we see that in some places they
have prevailed, over the latter, - and that the Catholics of Ireland, from the courtship paid them on the
one hand, and the high tone of refusal on the other,
should, in order to enter into all the rights of subjects, all become Protestant Dissenters, and, as the
others do, take all your oaths. They would all obtain their civil objects; and the change, for anything
I know to the contrary, (in the dark as I am about
the Protestant Dissenting tenets,) might be of use
to the health of their souls. But what security our
Constitution, in Church or State, could derive from
that event, I cannot possibly discern. Depend upon
it, it is as true as Nature is true, that, if you force
them out of the religion of habit, education, or opinion, it is not to yours they will ever go. Shaken in
their minds, they will go to that where the dogmas
are fewest,- where they are the most uncertain, -
where they lead them the least to a consideration
of what they have abandoned. They will go to that
uniformly democratic system to whose first move
? ? ? ? 300 LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE.
ments they owed their emancipation. I recommend
you seriously to turn this in your mind. Believe
that it requires your best and maturest thoughts.
Take what course you please, --union or no union;
whether the people remain Catholics or become Protestant Dissenters, sure it is that the present state of
monopoly cannot continue.
If England were animated, as I think she is not,
with her former spirit of domination, and with the
strong theological hatred which she once cherished
for that description of her fellow-Christians and fellow-subjects, I am yet convinced, that, after the fullest success in a ruinous struggle, you would be obliged to abandon that monopoly. We were obliged
to do this, even when everything promised success,
in the American business. If you should make this
experiment at last, under the pressure of any necessity, you never can do it well. But if, instead of
falling into a passion, the leading gentlemen of the
country themselves should undertake the business
cheerfully, and with hearty affection towards it,
great advantages would follow. What is forced
cannot be modified: but here you may measure
your concessions.
It is a consideration of great moment, that you
make the desired admission without altering the system of your representation in the smallest degree or
in any part. You may leave that deliberation of a
Parliamentary change or reform, if ever you should
think fit to engage ini it, uncomplicated and unembarrassed with the other question. Whereas, if they
are mixed and confounded, as some people attempt
to mix and confound them, no one can answer for the
effects on the Constitution itself.
? ? ? ? LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE. 301
There is another advantage in taking up this business singly and by an arrangement for the single object. It is that you may proceed by degrees. We must all obey the great law of change. It is the
most powerful law of Nature, and the means perhaps of its conservation. All we can do, and that
human wisdom can do, is to provide that the change
shall proceed by insensible degrees. This has all the
benefits which may be in change, without any of the
inconveniences of mutation. Everything is provided
for as it arrives. This mode will, on the one hand,
prevent the unfixing old interests at once: a thing
which is apt to breed a black and sullen discontent
in those who are at once dispossessed. of all their influence and consideration. This gradual course, on
the other side, will prevent men long under depression from being intoxicated with a large draught of
new power, which they always abuse with a licentious
insolence. But, wishing, as I do, the change to be
gradual and cautious, I would, in my first steps, lean
rather to the side of enlargement than restriction.
It is one excellence of our Constitution, that all
our rights of provincial election regard rather property than person. It is another, that the rights which
approach more nearly to the personal are most of
them corporate, and suppose a restrained and strict
education of seven years in some useful occupation.
In both cases the practice may have slid from the
principle. The standard of qualification in both cases
may be so low, or not so judiciously chosen, as in
some degree to frustrate the end. But all this is
for your prudence in the case before you. You
may rise a step or two the qualification of the Catholic voters. But if you were to-morrow to put the
? ? ? ? 302 LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE.
Catholic freeholder on the footing of the most favored forty-shilling Protestant Dissenter, you know,
that, such is the actual state of Ireland, this would
not make a sensible alteration in almost any one election in the kingdom. The effect in their favor, even defensively, would be infinitely slow. But it would
be healing; it would be satisfactory and protecting.
The stigma would be removed. By admitting settled,
permanent substance in lieu of the numbers, you
would avoid the great danger of our time, that of
setting up number against property. The numbers
ought never to be neglected, because (besides what
is due to them as men) collectively, though not individually, they have great property: they ought to have, therefore, protection; they ought to have security; they ought to have even consideration: but they ought not to predominate.
My dear Sir, I have nearly done. I meant to write
you a long letter: I have written a long dissertation.
I might have done it earlier and better. I might
have been more forcible and more clear, if I had not
been interrupted as I have been; and this obliges
me not to write to you in my own hand. Though
my hand but signs it, my heart goes with what I
have written. Since I could think at all, those have
been my thoughts. You know that thirty-two years
ago they were as fully matured in my mind as they
are now. A letter of mine to Lord Kenmare, though
not by my desire, and full of lesser mistakes, has
been printed in Dublin. It was written ten or twelve
years ago, at the time when I began the employment,
which I have not yet finished, in favor of another
distressed people, injured by those who have vanquished them, or stolen a dominion over them. It
? ? ? ? LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE. 303
contained my sentiments then: you will see how far
they accord with my sentiments now. Time has more
and more confirmed me in them all. The present
circumstances fix them deeper in my mind.
I voted last session, if a particular vote could be
distinguished in unanimity, for an establishment of
the Church of England conjointly with the establishment, which was made some years before by act of
Parliament, of the Roman Catholic, in the French conquered country of Canada. At the time of making
this English ecclesiastical establishment, we did not
think it necessary for its safety to destroy the former Gallican Church settlement. In our first act we
settled a government altogether monarchical, or nearly so. In that system, the Canadian Catholics were
far from being deprived of the advantages or distinctions, of any kind, which they enjoyed under their
former monarchy. It is true that some people, and
amongst them one eminent divine, predicted at that
time that by this step we should lose our dominions
in America. He foretold that the Pope would send
his indulgences hither; that the Canadians would
fall in with France, would declare independence, and
draw or force our colonies into the same design.
The independence happened according to his prediction; but in directly the reverse order. All our Elglish Protestant colonies revolted. They joined themselves to France; and it so happened that Popish Canada was the only place which preserved its fidelity, the only place in which France got no footing,
the only peopled colony which now remains to Great
Britain. Vain are all the prognostics taken from
ideas and passions, which survive the state of things
which gave rise to them. When last year we gave
? ? ? ? 304 LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE.
a popular representation to the same Canada by the
choice of the landholders, and an aristocratic represelltation at the choice of the crown, neither was
the choice of the crown nor the election of the landholders limited by a consideration of religion. We
had no dread for the Protestant Church which we
settled there, because we permitted the French Catholics, in the utmost latitude of the description, to be free subjects. They are good subjects, I have no
doubt; but I will not allow that any French Canadian
Catholics are better men or better citizens than the
Irish of the same communion. Passing firom the extremity of the West to the extremity almost of the East, I have been many years (now entering into
the twelfth) employed in supporting the rights, privileges, laws, and immunities of a very remote people. I have not as yet been able to finish my task. I have
struggled through much discouragement and much
opposition, much obloquy, much calumny, for a people with whom I have no tie but the common bond
of mankind. In this I have not been left alone. We
did not fly from our undertaking because the people
are Mahometans or Pagans, and that a great majority
of the Christians amongst them are Papists. Some
gentlemen in Ireland, I dare say, have good reasons
for what they may do, which do not occur to me.
I do not presume to condemn them; but, thinking
and acting as I have done towards these remote nations, I should not know how to show my face, here or in Ireland, if I should say that all the Pagans, all
the Mussulmen, and even all the Papists, (since they
must form the highest stage in the climax of evil,)
are worthy of a liberal and honorable condition, except those of one of the descriptions, which forms
? ? ? ? LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE. 305
the majority of the inhabitants of the country in
which you and I were born. If such are the Catholics of Ireland, ill-natured and unjust people, from
our own data, may be inclined not to think better
of the Protestants of a soil which is supposed to
infuse into its sects a kind of venom unknown in
other places.
You hated the old system as early as I did. Your
first juvenile lance was broken against that giant. I
think you were even the first who attacked the grim
phantom. You have an exceedingly good understanding, very good humor, and the best heart in the world. The dictates of that temper and that heart, as
well as the policy pointed out by that understanding,
led you to abhor the old code. You abhorred it, as I
did, for its vicious perfection. For I must do it justice: it was a complete system, full of coherence and consistency, well digested and well composed in all
its parts. It was a machine of wise and elaborate
contrivance, and as well fitted for the oppression,
impoverishment, and degradation of a people, and
the debasement, in them, of human nature itself, as
ever proceeded from the perverted ingenuity of man.
It is a thing humiliating enough, that we are doubtful of the effect of the medicines we compound, -- we are sure of our poisons. My opinion ever was, (in
which I heartily agree with those that admired the
old code,) that it was so constructed, that, if there
was once a breach in any essential part of it, the
ruin of the whole, or nearly of the whole, was, at
some time or other, a certainty. For that reason I
honor and shall forever honor and love you, and
those who first caused it to stagger, crack, and gape.
Others may finish; the beginners have the glory;
VOL. IV. 20
? ? ? ? 306 LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE.
and, take what part you please at this hour, (I think you will take the best,) your first services will never be forgotten by a grateful country. Adieu! Present my best regards to those I know, - and as many as I know in our country I honor. There never was so much ability, nor, I believe, virtue in it. They have
a task worthy of both. I doubt not they will perform it, for the stability of the Church and State, and for the union and the separation of the people: for the union of the honest and peaceable of all sects; for their separation from all that is ill-intentioned and seditious in any of them.
BEACONSFIELD, January 3, 1792.
? ? ? ? HINTS FOR A MEMORIAL
TO BE DELIVERED TO
MONSIEUR DE M. M.
WRITTEN IN THE EARLY PART OF 1791
? ? ? ? HINTS FOR A MEMORIAL.
I HE King, my master, from his sincere desire of
keeping up a good correspondence with his Most
Christian Majesty and the French nation, has for some
time beheld with concern the condition into which
that sovereign and nation have fallen.
Notwithstanding the reality and the warmth of
those sentiments, his Britannic Majesty has hitherto
forborne in any manner to take part in their affairs,
in hopes that the common interest of king and subjects would render all parties sensible of the necessity of settling their government and their freedom upon principles of moderation, as the only means of
securing permanence to both these blessings, as well
as internal and external tranquillity to the kingdom
of France, and to all Europe.
His Britannic Majesty finds, to his great regret,
that his hopes have not been realized. He finds that
confusions and disorders have rather increased than
diminished, and that they now threaten to proceed to
dangerous extremities.
In this situation of things, the same regard to a
neighboring sovereign living in friendship with Great
Britain, the same spirit of good-will to the kingdom
of France, the same regard to the general tranquillity, which have caused him to view with concern
the growth and continuance of the present disorders,
have induced the King of Great Britain to interpose
? ? ? ? 310 HINTS FOR A MEMORIAL.
his good offices towards a reconcilement of those unhappy differences. This his Majesty does with the most cordial regard to the good of all descriptions
concerned, and with the most perfect sincerity, wholly
removing from his royal mind all memory of every
circumstance which might impede him in the execution of a plan of benevolence which he ha-s so much at heart.
His Majesty, having always thought it his greatest
glory that he rules over a people perfectly and solidly, because soberly, rationally, and legally free, call never be supposed to proceed in offering thus his
royal mediation, but with an unaffected desire and
full resolution to consider the settlement of a free
constitution in France as the very basis of ally agreement between the sovereign and those of his subjects who are unhappily at variance with him, - to guaranty it to them, if it should be desired, in the, most solemn and authentic manner, and to do all that in
him lies to procure the like guaranty from other
powers.
His Britannic Majesty, in the same manner, assures the Most Christian King that he knows too well
and values too highly what is due to the dignity and
rights of crowned heads, and to the implied faith of
treaties which have always been made with the crown
of France, ever to listen to any proposition by which
that monarchy shall be despoiled of all its rights, so
essential for the support of the consideration of tlle
prince and the concord and welfare of the people.
If, unfortunately, a due attention should not be
paid to these his Majesty's benevolent and neighborly
offers, or if any circumstances should prevent the
Most Christian King from acceding (as his Majesty
? ? ? ? HINTS FOR A MEMORIAL. 311
has no doubt he is well disposed to do) to this healing mediation in favor of himself and all his subjects, his Majesty has commanded me to take leave of this
court, as not conceiving it to be suitable to the dignity of his crown, and to what he owes to his faithful people, any longer to keep a public minister at the
court of a sovereign who is not in possession of his
own liberty.
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS
ON
FRENCH AFFAIRS,
ETC. , ETC.
WRITTEN IN DECEMBER, 1791.
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
N all our transactions with France, ald at all periods, we have treated with that state on the footing of a monarchy. Monarchy was considered in all the external relations of that kingdom with every
power in Europe as its legal and constitutional government, and that in which alone its federal capacity
was vested.
It is not yet a year since Monsieur de MIontmorin's
Montmorin formally, and with as little respect as can be imagined to the king, and to all
crowned heads, announced a total Revolution ill that
country. He has informed the British ministry that
its frame of government is wholly altered, - that he
is one of the ministers of the new system, - and, in
effect, that the king is no longer his master, (nor
does he even call him such,) but the "first of the
ministere," in the new system.
The second notification was that of the Acceptance
of the Con
king's acceptance of the new Constitution, stitution
accompanied with fanfaronades in the modern style of the French bureaus: things which have
much more the air and character of the saucy declamations of their clubs than the tone of regular office.
It has not been very usual to notify to foreign
courts anything concerning the internal arrange
ments of any state. In the present case, the cir
? ? ? ? 316 THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS.
cumstance of these two notifications, with the observations with which they are attended, does not leave
it in the choice of the sovereigns of Christendom to
appear ignorant either of this French Revolution or
(what is more important) of its principles.
We know, that, very soon after this manifesto of
Monsieur de Montmorin, the king of France, in
whose name it was made, found himself obliged to
fly, with his whole family, --leaving behind him a
declaration in which he disavows and annuls that
Constitution, as having been the effect of force on
his person and usurpation on his authority. It is
equally notorious, that this unfortunate prince was,
with many circumstances of insult and outrage,
brought back prisoner by a deputation of the pretended National Assembly, and afterwards suspended by their authority from his government. Under equally notorious constraint, and under menaces of
total deposition, he has been compelled to accept
what they call a Constitution, and to agree to whatever else the usurped power which holds him in
confinement thinks proper to impose.
His next brother, who had fled with him, and his
third brother, who had fled before him, all the
princes of his blood who remained faithful to him,
and the flower of his magistracy, his clergy, and his
nobility, continue in foreign countries, protesting
against all acts done by him in his present situation, on the grounds upon which he had himself
protested against them at the time of his flight,with this addition, that they deny his very competence (as on good grounds they may) to abrogate the royalty, or the ancient constitutional orders of
the kingdom. In this protest they are joined by
? ? ? ? THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS. 317
three hundred of the late Assembly itself, and, in
effect, by a great part of the French nation. The
new government (so far as the people dare to disclose their sentiments) is disdained, I am persuaded,
by the greater number, -- who, as M. de La Fayette
complains, and as the truth is, have declined to take
any share in the new elections to the National Assembly, either as candidates or electors.
In this state of things, (that is, in the case of a
divided kingdom,) by the law of nations,* Great
Britain, like every other power, is free to take any
part she pleases. She may decline, with more or
less formality, according to her discretion, to acknowledge this new system; or she may recognize
it as a government de facto, setting aside all discussion of its original legality, and considering the ancient monarchy as at an end. The law of nations leaves our court open to its choice. We have no
direction but what is found in the well-understood
policy of the king and kingdom.
This declaration of a new species of government,
on new principles, (such it professes itself to be,) is
a real crisis in the politics of Europe. The conduct
which prudence ought to dictate to Great Britain
will not depend (as hitherto 6ur connection or quarrel with other states has for some time depended)
upon merely external relations, but in a great measure also upon the system which we may think it
right to adopt for the internal government of our
own country.
