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The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. VI. (of 12) by Edmund Burke

E >> Edmund Burke >> The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. VI. (of 12)



THE WORKS

OF

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

EDMUND BURKE


IN TWELVE VOLUMES

VOLUME THE SIXTH


[Illustration: Burke Coat of Arms.]


LONDON
JOHN C. NIMMO
14, KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND, W.C.
MDCCCLXXXVII




CONTENTS OF VOL. VI.


PREFACE TO THE SECOND POSTHUMOUS VOLUME, IN A LETTER TO THE RIGHT
HON. WILLIAM ELLIOT v

FOURTH LETTER ON THE PROPOSALS FOR PEACE WITH THE REGICIDE DIRECTORY
OF FRANCE; WITH THE PRELIMINARY CORRESPONDENCE 1

LETTER TO THE EMPRESS OF RUSSIA, November 1, 1791 113

LETTER TO SIR CHARLES BINGHAM, BART., ON THE IRISH ABSENTEE TAX,
October 30, 1773 121

LETTER TO THE HON. CHARLES JAMES FOX, ON THE AMERICAN WAR,
October 8, 1777 135

LETTER TO THE MARQUIS OF ROCKINGHAM, WITH ADDRESSES TO THE KING,
AND THE BRITISH COLONISTS IN NORTH AMERICA, IN RELATION TO THE
MEASURES OF GOVERNMENT IN THE AMERICAN CONTEST, AND A PROPOSED
SECESSION OF THE OPPOSITION FROM PARLIAMENT, January, 1777 149

LETTER TO THE RIGHT HON. EDMUND S. PERRY, IN RELATION TO A BILL
FOR THE RELIEF OF THE ROMAN CATHOLICS OF IRELAND, July 18, 1778 197

TWO LETTERS TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ., AND JOHN MERLOTT, ESQ., IN
VINDICATION OF HIS PARLIAMENTARY CONDUCT RELATIVE TO THE AFFAIRS
OF IRELAND, 1780 207

LETTERS AND REFLECTIONS ON THE EXECUTIONS OF THE RIOTERS IN 1780 239

LETTER TO THE RIGHT HON. HENRY DUNDAS: WITH THE SKETCH OF A NEGRO
CODE, 1792 255

LETTER TO THE CHAIRMAN OF THE BUCKINGHAMSHIRE MEETING, HELD AT
AYLESBURY, APRIL 13, 1780, ON THE SUBJECT OF PARLIAMENTARY
REFORM 291

FRAGMENTS OF A TRACT RELATIVE TO THE LAWS AGAINST POPERY IN IRELAND 299

LETTER TO WILLIAM SMITH, ESQ., ON THE SUBJECT OF CATHOLIC
EMANCIPATION, January 29, 1795 361

SECOND LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE, ON THE CATHOLIC QUESTION,
May 26, 1795 375

LETTER TO RICHARD BURKE, ESQ., ON PROTESTANT ASCENDENCY IN IRELAND,
1793 385

LETTER ON THE AFFAIRS OF IRELAND, 1797 413




PREFACE

TO THE SECOND POSTHUMOUS VOLUME,[1]

IN A LETTER TO

THE RIGHT HON. WILLIAM ELLIOT


My dear sir,--As some prefatory account of the materials which compose
this second posthumous volume of the Works of Mr. Burke, and of the
causes which have prevented its earlier appearance, will be expected
from me, I hope I may be indulged in the inclination I feel to run over
these matters in a letter to you, rather than in a formal address to the
public.

Of the delay that has intervened since the publication of the former
volume I shall first say a few words. Having undertaken, in conjunction
with the late Dr. Laurence, to examine the manuscript papers of Mr.
Burke, and to select and prepare for the press such of them as should be
thought proper for publication, the difficulties attending our
cooeperation were soon experienced by us. The remoteness of our places
of residence in summer, and our professional and other avocations in
winter, opposed perpetual obstacles to the progress of our undertaking.

Soon after the publication of the fourth volume, I was rendered
incapable of attending to any business by a severe and tedious illness.
And it was not long after my recovery before the health of our
invaluable friend began gradually to decline, and soon became unequal to
the increasing labors of his profession and the discharge of his
Parliamentary duties. At length we lost a man, of whom, as I shall have
occasion to speak more particularly in another part of this undertaking,
I will now content myself with saying, that in my humble opinion he
merited, and certainly obtained with those best acquainted with his
extensive learning and information, a considerable rank amongst the
eminent persons who have adorned the age in which we have lived, and of
whose services the public have been deprived by a premature death.

From these causes little progress had been made in our work when I was
deprived of my coadjutor. But from that time you can testify of me that
I have not been idle. You can bear witness to the confused state in
which the materials that compose the present volume came into my hands.
The difficulty of reading many of the manuscripts, obscured by
innumerable erasures, corrections, interlineations, and marginal
insertions, would perhaps have been insuperable to any person less
conversant in the manuscripts of Mr. Burke than myself. To this
difficulty succeeded that of selecting from several detached papers,
written upon the same subject and the same topics, such as appeared to
contain the author's last thoughts and emendations. When these
difficulties were overcome, there still remained, in many instances,
that of assigning its proper place to many detached members of the same
piece, where no direct note of connection had been made. These
circumstances, whilst they will lead the reader not to expect, in the
cases to which they apply, the finished productions of Mr. Burke,
imposed upon me a task of great delicacy and difficulty,--namely, that
of deciding upon the publication of any, and which, of these unfinished
pieces. I must here beg permission of you, and Lord Fitzwilliam, to
inform the public, that in the execution of this part of my duty I
requested and obtained your assistance.

Our first care was to ascertain, from such evidence, internal and
external, as the manuscripts themselves afforded, what pieces appeared
to have been at any time intended by the author for publication. Our
next was to select such as, though not originally intended for
publication, yet appeared to contain matter that might contribute to the
gratification and instruction of the public. Our last object was to
determine what degree of imperfection and incorrectness in papers of
either of these classes ought or ought not to exclude them from a place
in the present volume. This was, doubtless, the most nice and arduous
part of our undertaking. The difficulty, however, was, in our minds,
greatly diminished by our conviction that the reputation of our author
stood far beyond the reach of injury from any injudicious conduct of
ours in making this selection. On the other hand, we were desirous that
nothing should be withheld, from which the public might derive any
possible benefit.

Nothing more is now necessary than that I should give a short account of
the writings which compose the present volume.


I. Fourth Letter on a Regicide Peace.

Some account has already been given of this Letter in the Advertisement
to the fourth quarto volume.[2] That part of it which is contained
between the first and the middle of the page 67[3] is taken from a
manuscript which, nearly to the conclusion, had received the author's
last corrections: the subsequent part, to the middle of the page 71,[4]
is taken from some loose manuscripts, that were dictated by the author,
but do not appear to have been revised by him; and though they, as well
as what follows to the conclusion, were evidently designed to make a
part of this Letter, the editor alone is responsible for the order in
which they are here placed. The last part, from the middle of the page
71, had been printed as a part of the Letter which was originally
intended to be the third on Regicide Peace, as in the preface to the
fourth volume has already been noticed.

It was thought proper to communicate this Letter before its publication
to Lord Auckland, the author of the pamphlet so frequently alluded to in
it. His Lordship, in consequence of this communication, was pleased to
put into my hands a letter with which he had sent his pamphlet to Mr.
Burke at the time of its publication, and Mr. Burke's answer to that
letter. These pieces, together with the note with which his Lordship
transmitted them to me, are prefixed to the Letter on Regicide Peace.

II. Letter to the Empress of Russia.
III. Letter to Sir Charles Bingham.
IV. Letter to the Honorable Charles James Fox.

Of these Letters it will be sufficient to remark, that they come under
the second of those classes into which, as I before observed, we divided
the papers that presented themselves to our consideration.

V. Letter to the Marquis of Rockingham.
VI. An Address to the King.
VII. An Address to the British Colonists in North America.

These pieces relate to a most important period in the present reign;
and I hope no apology will be necessary for giving them to the public.

VIII. Letter to the Right Honorable Edmund [Sexton] Pery.
IX. Letter to Thomas Burgh, Esq.
X. Letter to John Merlott, Esq.

The reader will find, in a note annexed to each of these Letters, an
account of the occasions on which they were written. The Letter to T.
Burgh, Esq., had found its way into some of the periodical prints of the
time in Dublin.

XI. Reflections on the Approaching Executions.

It may not, perhaps, now be generally known that Mr. Burke was a marked
object of the rioters in this disgraceful commotion, from whose fury he
narrowly escaped. The Reflections will be found to contain maxims of the
soundest judicial policy, and do equal honor to the head and heart of
their illustrious writer.

XII. Letter to the Right Honorable Henry Dundas; with the Sketch of a
Negro Code.

Mr. Burke, in the Letter to Mr. Dundas, has entered fully into his own
views of the Slave Trade, and has thereby rendered any further
explanation on that subject at present unnecessary. With respect to the
Code itself, an unsuccessful attempt was made to procure the copy of it
transmitted to Mr. Dundas. It was not to be found amongst his papers.
The Editor has therefore been obliged to have recourse to a rough draft
of it in Mr. Burke's own handwriting; from which he hopes he has
succeeded in making a pretty correct transcript of it, as well as in the
attempt he has made to supply the marginal references alluded to in Mr.
Burke's Letter to Mr. Dundas.

XIII. Letter to the Chairman of the Buckinghamshire Meeting.

Of the occasion of this Letter an account is given in the note subjoined
[prefixed] to it.

XIV. Tracts and Letters relative to the Laws against Popery in Ireland.

These pieces consist of,--

1. An unfinished Tract on the Popery Laws. Of this Tract the reader will
find an account in the note prefixed to it.

2. A Letter to William Smith, Esq. Several copies of this letter having
got abroad, it was printed and published in Dublin without the
permission of Mr. Burke, or of the gentleman to whom it was addressed.

3. Second Letter to Sir Hercules Langrishe. This may be considered as
supplementary to the first letter, addressed to the same person in
January, 1792, which was published in the third volume.[5]

4. Letter to Richard Burke, Esq. Of this letter it will be necessary to
observe, that the first part of it appears to have been originally
addressed by Mr. Burke to his son in the manner in which it is now
printed, but to have been left unfinished; after whose death he probably
designed to have given the substance of it, with additional
observations, to the public in some other form, but never found leisure
or inclination to finish it.

5. A Letter on the Affairs of Ireland, written in the year 1797. The
name of the person to whom this letter was addressed does not appear on
the manuscript; nor has the letter been found to which it was written as
an answer. And as the gentleman whom he employed as an amanuensis is not
now living, no discovery of it can be made, unless this publication of
the letter should produce some information respecting it, that may
enable us in a future volume to gratify, on this point, the curiosity of
the reader. The letter was dictated, as he himself tells us, from his
couch at Bath; to which place he had gone, by the advice of his
physicians, in March, 1797. His health was now rapidly declining; the
vigor of his mind remained unimpaired. This, my dear friend, was, I
believe, the last letter dictated by him on public affairs:--here ended
his political labors.

XV. Fragments and Notes of Speeches in Parliament.

1. Speech on the Acts of Uniformity.

2. Speech on a Bill for the Relief of Protestant Dissenters.

3. Speech on the Petition of the Unitarians.

4. Speech on the Middlesex Election.

5. Speech on a Bill for shortening the Duration of Parliaments.

6. Speech on the Reform of the Representation in Parliament.

7. Speech on a Bill for explaining the Powers of Juries in Prosecutions
for Libels.

*7. Letter relative to the same subject.

8. Speech on a Bill for repealing the Marriage Act.

9. Speech on a Bill to quiet the Possessions of the Subject against
Dormant Claims of the Church.

With respect to these fragments, I have already stated the reasons by
which we were influenced in our determination to publish them. An
account of the state in which these manuscripts were found is given in
the note prefixed to this article.

XVI. Hints for an Essay on the Drama.

This fragment was perused in manuscript by a learned and judicious
critic, our late lamented friend, Mr. Malone; and under the protection
of his opinion we can feel no hesitation in submitting it to the
judgment of the public.

XVII. We are now come to the concluding article of this volume,--the
Essay on the History of England.

At what time of the author's life it was written cannot now be exactly
ascertained; but it was certainly begun before he had attained the age
of twenty-seven years, as it appears from an entry in the books of the
late Mr. Dodsley, that eight sheets of it, which contain the first
seventy-four pages of the present edition,[6] were printed in the year
1757. This is the only part that has received the finishing stroke of
the author. In those who are acquainted with the manner in which Mr.
Burke usually composed his graver literary works, and of which some
account is given in the Advertisement prefixed to the fourth volume,
this circumstance will excite a deep regret; and whilst the public
partakes with us in this feeling, it will doubtless be led to judge with
candor and indulgence of a work left in this imperfect and unfinished
state by its author.

Before I conclude, it may not be improper to take this opportunity of
acquainting the public with the progress that has been made towards the
completion of this undertaking. The sixth and seventh volumes, which
will consist entirely of papers that have a relation to the affairs of
the East India Company, and to the impeachment of Mr. Hastings, are now
in the press. The suspension of the consideration of the affairs of the
East India Company in Parliament till its nest session has made me very
desirous to get the sixth volume out as early as possible in the next
winter. The Ninth and Eleventh Reports of the Select Committee,
appointed to take into consideration certain affairs of the East India
Company in the year 1783, were written by Mr. Burke, and will be given
in that volume. They contain a full and comprehensive view of the
commerce, revenues, civil establishment, and general policy of the
Company, and will therefore be peculiarly interesting at this time to
the public.

The eighth and last volume will contain a narrative of the life of Mr.
Burke, which will be accompanied with such parts of his familiar
correspondence, and other occasional productions, as shall be thought
fit for publication.[7] The materials relating to the early years of his
life, alluded to in the Advertisement to the fourth volume, have been
lately recovered; and the communication of such as may still remain in
the possession of any private individuals is again most earnestly
requested.

Unequal as I feel myself to the task, I shall, my dear friend, lose no
time, nor spare any pains, in discharging the arduous duty that has
devolved upon me. You know the peculiar difficulties I labor under from
the failure of my eyesight; and you may congratulate me upon the
assistance which I have now procured from my neighbor, the worthy
chaplain[8] of Bromley College, who to the useful qualification of a
most patient amanuensis adds that of a good scholar and intelligent
critic.

And now, adieu, my dear friend,

And believe me ever affectionately yours,

WR. ROFFEN.

BROMLEY HOUSE, August 1, 1812.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Works, Vol. V., quarto edition, (London, F., C., & J. Rivington,
1812,)--Vol. IV. of that edition (London, F. & C. Rivington, 1802) being
the first posthumous volume,--and Vols. I., II., and III. (London, J.
Dodsley, 1792) comprising the collection published during the lifetime
of Mr. Burke.

[2] Prefixed to the first volume, in the other editions. For the account
referred to, see, in the present edition, Vol. I., pp. xiii., xiv.

[3] Page 86 of the present edition.

[4] In this edition, p. 91, near the top.

[5] In the fourth volume of the present edition.

[6] The quarto edition,--extending as far as Book II. ch. 2, near the
middle of the paragraph commencing, "The same regard to the welfare of
the people," &c.

[7] This design the editor did not live to execute.

[8] The Rev. J.J. Talman.




FOURTH LETTER

ON THE

PROPOSALS FOR PEACE WITH THE REGICIDE DIRECTORY OF FRANCE.

ADDRESSED TO

THE EARL FITZWILLIAM.
1795-7.


PRELIMINARY CORRESPONDENCE.

_Letter from the Right Honorable the Lord Auckland to the Lord Bishop of
Rochester_.

EDEN FARM, KENT, July 18th, 1812.

My dear Lord,--Mr. Burke's fourth letter to Lord Fitzwilliam is
personally interesting to me: I have perused it with a respectful
attention.

When I communicated to Mr. Burke, in 1795, the printed work which he
arraigns and discusses, I was aware that he would differ from me.

Some light is thrown on the transaction by my note which gave rise to
it, and by his answer, which exhibits the admirable powers of his great
and good mind, deeply suffering at the time under a domestic calamity.

I have selected these two papers from my manuscript collection, and now
transmit them to your Lordship with a wish that they may be annexed to
the publication in question.

I have the honor to be, my dear Lord,

Yours most sincerely,

AUCKLAND.

TO THE RIGHT REV. THE LORD BISHOP OF ROCHESTER.

* * * * *

_Letter from Lord Auckland to the Right Honorable Edmund Burke_.


EDEN FARM, KENT, October 28th, 1795.

My dear Sir,--

Though in the stormy ocean of the last twenty-three years we have seldom
sailed on the same tack, there has been nothing hostile in our signals
or manoeuvres, and, on my part at least, there has been a cordial
disposition towards friendly and respectful sentiments. Under that
influence, I now send to you a small work which exhibits my fair and
full opinions on the arduous circumstances of the moment, "as far as the
cautions necessary to be observed will permit me to go beyond general
ideas."

Three or four of those friends with whom I am most connected in public
and private life are pleased to think that the statement in question
(which at first made part of a confidential paper) may do good, and
accordingly a very large impression will be published to-day. I neither
seek to avow the publication nor do I wish to disavow it. I have no
anxiety in that respect, but to contribute my mite to do service, at a
moment when service is much wanted.

I am, my dear Sir,

Most sincerely yours,

AUCKLAND.

RIGHT HON. EDMUND BURKE.

* * * * *

_Letter from the Right Honorable Edmund Burke to Lord Auckland_.

My dear Lord,--

I am perfectly sensible of the very flattering honor you have done me in
turning any part of your attention towards a dejected old man, buried
in the anticipated grave of a feeble old age, forgetting and forgotten
in an obscure and melancholy retreat.

In this retreat I have nothing relative to this world to do, but to
study all the tranquillity that in the state of my mind I am capable of.
To that end I find it but too necessary to call to my aid an oblivion of
most of the circumstances, pleasant and unpleasant, of my life,--to
think as little and indeed to know as little as I can of everything that
is doing about me,--and, above all, to divert my mind from all
presagings and prognostications of what I must (if I let my speculations
loose) consider as of absolute necessity to happen after my death, and
possibly even before it. Your address to the public, which you have been
so good as to send to me, obliges me to break in upon that plan, and to
look a little on what is behind, and very much on what is before me. It
creates in my mind a variety of thoughts, and all of them unpleasant.

It is true, my Lord, what you say, that, through our public life, we
have generally sailed on somewhat different tacks. We have so,
undoubtedly; and we should do so still, if I had continued longer to
keep the sea. In that difference, you rightly observe that I have always
done justice to your skill and ability as a navigator, and to your good
intentions towards the safety of the cargo and of the ship's company. I
cannot say now that we are on different tacks. There would be no
propriety in the metaphor. I can sail no longer. My vessel cannot be
said to be even in port. She is wholly condemned and broken up. To have
an idea of that vessel, you must call to mind what you have often seen
on the Kentish road. Those planks of tough and hardy oak, that used for
years to brave the buffets of the Bay of Biscay, are now turned, with
their warped grain and empty trunnion-holes, into very wretched pales
for the inclosure of a wretched farm-yard.

The style of your pamphlet, and the eloquence and power of composition
you display in it, are such as do great honor to your talents, and in
conveying any other sentiments would give me very great pleasure.
Perhaps I do not very perfectly comprehend your purpose, and the drift
of your arguments. If I do not, pray do not attribute my mistake to want
of candor, but to want of sagacity. I confess, your address to the
public, together with other accompanying circumstances, has filled me
with a degree of grief and dismay which I cannot find words to express.
If the plan of politics there recommended--pray excuse my
freedom--should be adopted by the king's councils, and by the good
people of this kingdom, (as, so recommended, undoubtedly it will,)
nothing can be the consequence but utter and irretrievable ruin to the
ministry, to the crown, to the succession,--to the importance, to the
independence, to the very existence, of this country. This is my feeble,
perhaps, but clear, positive, decided, long and maturely reflected and
frequently declared opinion, from which all the events which have lately
come to pass, so far from turning me, have tended to confirm beyond the
power of alteration, even by your eloquence and authority. I find, my
dear Lord, that you think some persons, who are not satisfied with the
securities of a Jacobin peace, to be persons of intemperate minds. I may
be, and I fear I am, with you in that description; but pray, my Lord,
recollect that very few of the causes which make men intemperate can
operate upon me. Sanguine hopes, vehement desires, inordinate ambition,
implacable animosity, party attachments, or party interests,--all these
with me have no existence. For myself, or for a family, (alas! I have
none,) I have nothing to hope or to fear in this world. I am attached,
by principle, inclination, and gratitude, to the king, and to the
present ministry.

Perhaps you may think that my animosity to opposition is the cause of my
dissent, on seeing the politics of Mr. Fox (which, while I was in the
world, I combated by every instrument which God had put into my hands,
and in every situation in which I had taken part) so completely, if I at
all understand you, adopted in your Lordship's book: but it was with
pain I broke with that great man forever in that cause; and I assure
you, it is not without pain that I differ with your Lordship on the same
principles. But it is of no concern. I am far below the region of those
great and tempestuous passions. I feel nothing of the intemperance of
mind. It is rather sorrow and dejection than anger.

Once more my best thanks for your very polite attention; and do me the
favor to believe me, with the most perfect sentiments of respect and
regard,

My dear Lord,

Your Lordship's most obedient and humble servant,

EDMUND BURKE.

BEACONSFIELD, Oct. 30th, 1795.

Friday Evening.




LETTER IV.

TO THE EARL FITZWILLIAM.


My dear Lord,--I am not sure that the best way of discussing any
subject, except those that concern the abstracted sciences, is not
somewhat in the way of dialogue. To this mode, however, there are two
objections: the first, that it happens, as in the puppet-show, one man
speaks for all the personages. An unnatural uniformity of tone is in a
manner unavoidable. The other and more serious objection is, that, as
the author (if not an absolute skeptic) must have some opinion of his
own to enforce, he will be continually tempted to enervate the arguments
he puts into the mouth of his adversary, or to place them in a point of
view most commodious for their refutation. There is, however, a sort of
dialogue not quite so liable to these objections, because it approaches
more nearly to truth and Nature: it is called CONTROVERSY. Here the
parties speak for themselves. If the writer who attacks another's
notions does not deal fairly with his adversary, the diligent reader has
it always in his power, by resorting to the work examined, to do justice
to the original author and to himself. For this reason you will not
blame me, if, in my discussion of the merits of a Regicide Peace, I do
not choose to trust to my own statements, but to bring forward along
with them the arguments of the advocates for that measure. If I choose
puny adversaries, writers of no estimation or authority, then you will
justly blame me. I might as well bring in at once a fictitious speaker,
and thus fall into all the inconveniences of an imaginary dialogue. This
I shall avoid; and I shall take no notice of any author who my friends
in town do not tell me is in estimation with those whose opinions he
supports.

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