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CONCILIATION WITH THE AMERI

CAN COLONIES

EDMUND BURKE

ON MOVING HIS RESOLUTIONS FOR CONCILIATION WITH THE COLO-
NIES.
HOUSE OF COMMONS, MARCH 22, 1775-

INTRODUCTION

Edmund Burke, statesman, orator, and man of letters, was born in Dublin, Ireland, January 12, 1729. His father, a Protestant, was a lawyer with a good practice. His mother was of Irish descent and a Catholic. In 1741 he was sent to school at Ballitore, under the tutorship of one Abraham Shackleton, a Quaker from Yorkshire. In 1743 he entered Trinity College, Dublin. During the five years spent there Burke did not distinguish himself as a student, but he spent much time in reading widely in history, politics, literature, and philosophy, - a habit that was continued throughout his life. Burke's father intended that his son should be a lawyer, and in 1750 Burke was sent to London to pursue his legal studies. Except for the circumstance of his marriage in 1756, his life during the nine years following his removal to London is enveloped in almost complete obscurity. He was entered at the Middle Temple, but was never admitted to practice. General reading doubtless claimed his attention more than the law. He had a strong literary bent, and we find him passing his summers in retired country villages, reading and writing with desultory industry. Having displeased his father by failing to enter the legal profession, Burke found his allowance withdrawn, and was forced to depend chiefly on his pen for a living. In 1765 he became private secretary to Lord Rockingham, the head of the new Whig ministry. Soon after he was returned to Parliament as a member from Wendover, and later from Bristol. He took his

seat in time to participate in the debates which preceded the repeal of the Stamp Act in 1766, and was continuously in Parliament from this time until 1794. He died in 1797.

Some one has said that a passion for order and a passion for justice were the master motives of Burke's life and thought. It is interesting to see how these master passions expressed themselves in dealing with the three great problems in government which arose during his career, · the problems of America, of India, and of France.

In dealing with America Burke was unquestionably at his best. His highly developed sense of justice led him to protest against the paternal policy and high-handed methods of George the Third and his Tory supporters. Burke felt that these methods threatened liberty not only in the colonies, but also in England; hence his plea for justice to the colonists comported with his passion for order. His plan would not violate the principles of the English constitution, while it would insure order and tranquillity in the colonies. Burke was not, however, a thoroughgoing reformer in the modern sense. He has been called the Great Conservative. The basis of his plea for conciliation with the American colonies fell far short of the principles enunciated in the Declaration of Independence. When the Stamp Act was repealed the radical wing of the Whig party, led by Pitt and Fox, would have gone farther and acknowledged the absolute injustice of taxation without representation. Not so with Burke; the declaration of this principle would have been to him a too violent breaking with the traditions of the English constitution, as he conceived them. He therefore warmly supported the Declaratory Act coupled with the repeal of the Stamp Act, which asserted "the supreme authority of Parliament over the colonies, in all cases whatsoever." In both of his speeches on America Burke refuses to discuss the question of taxation without representation. That, he said, was not the main issue. And yet that was the issue which the colonists raised, and the issue which divided the English Whigs. Burke based his arguments solely on expediency, so that, as Goldwin Smith has pointed out, "you cannot extract from him any definite theory of the colonial relation." His conservative attitude, springing from his passion for order, as we have seen, was a strong influence in the disruption of the Whig party, thus preventing a solid front in the opposition to the policy of George the Third.

When the American colonies were forever lost Burke turned his attention to India. For many years he had studied the history and the workings of English rule in India, and when, in 1786, he began a nine years' fight against the injustice and corruption in the government of that country, he was unquestionably the best informed man in England on Indian affairs. In this contest, as in the case of America, Burke's passion for order and for justice did not conflict; and although his efforts to impeach Hastings technically failed, the result was a moral victory, for his masterful array of facts and splendid oratory led to government reforms on a large scale in India.

In 1789 came the crash of the French Revolution. In dealing with the questions thereby involved, Burke's natural conservatism became yet more predominant, for he was growing old. His passion for order prevented a calm consideration of justice as between oppressor and oppressed. He believed the Revolution to be the work of atheists and theorists, who were waging war upon the institutions which preserve order in society, — upon king, nobles, and clergy. So when in 1790 his "Reflections on the Revolution in France" appeared, the Tories and King George, whom Burke had stoutly opposed in the American policy, now hailed him as their shield and defender. As the Revolution developed its worst features, Burke's hatred of it grew, and his non-judicial attitude, violence of temper, and fierce invective, mark a decline of those powers of reasoning and persuasion which appear at their best in the speech on "Conciliation."

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The leading characteristics, then, of Burke's political philosophy are opposed to much that is fundamental in modern systems. He belonged to both the old order and the new, - planting himself on the old and prophesying the new. All in all, his title to fame as a statesman lies not so much in his immediate accomplishment as in his influence, his persistent and eloquent advocacy of those high and noble principles which find justification by their adoption in modern times. Burke brought to politics a terror of crime, a deep humanity, and a keen sensibility. "No one," says Morley, "has ever come so close to the details of practical politics, and at the same time remembered that these can only be understood and dealt with by the aid of the broad conceptions of political philosophy." "He was," says Buckle,1 "Bacon alone excepted, the 1 Civilization in England, chap. vii.

greatest political thinker who ever devoted himself to the practice of English politics."

As an orator, Burke did not excel in delivery, though often very effective. "The heavy, Quaker-like figure, the scratch wig, the round spectacles, the cumbrous roll of paper which loaded Burke's pocket,"1 were not prepossessing. He was tall though not robust, angular in his movements, with a somewhat harsh voice that never lost a strong Irish accent, and a temper which, when aroused by opposition or criticism, often weakened the effect of what he said. On the other hand, he possessed many qualities, both natural and acquired, which fitted him for his career as an orator. His Protestant-Catholic parentage, together with the early association with his Quaker tutor, conduced to broad-mindedness and toleration in an age of intense religious bigotry, and gave him sympathy with struggles for liberty and hatred of all forms of oppression. Readiness in thinking on his feet was aided by early practice in a private debating club, and later in the Robin Hood Club in London. Withal, the impress of his native genius was powerfully aided by his unflagging industry,- his thoroughness in getting up his cases. All his great speeches reveal a marvelous mastery of the facts, a detailed and comprehensive knowledge which make them, as he himself said of the utterances of Alfred the Great, "both minute and sublime."

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As to the immediate influence of Burke's oratory, there is much conflicting testimony among his contemporaries. Prior, in his Life of Burke, quotes Mr. Curran to the effect that "as an orator Burke surpassed all his contemporaries, and was perhaps never exceeded." And Grattan says: “Burke is unquestionably the first orator among the Commons of England; boundless in knowledge, instantaneous in his apprehensions, and abundant in his language. He speaks with profound attention and acknowledged superiority, notwithstanding the want of energy, grace, and elegance in his manner." Erskine said to Mr. Rush, the American minister: “I was in the House when Burke made his great speech on American Conciliation, the greatest he ever made. He drove everybody away. When I read it, I read it over and over again; I could hardly think of anything else."

Erskine's testimony furnishes the key to a just estimate of Burke's oratory. Judged by its ultimate influence, he was unquestionably

1 Green, Short History of the English People, p. 770.

the greatest orator England has ever produced. And yet.it must be admitted that his speeches were generally unsuited to the needs of the House of Commons. Burke was an orator rather than a debater, a statesman rather than a politician, the champion of a principle rather than the legislative manipulator. His speeches are largely political lectures; hence his title of PhilosopherStatesman. Unlike Fox, Burke was not content to seize upon the strong points of a case and cast aside intermediate thoughts. His exuberant fancy and wide knowledge led him to adduce details, illustrations, repetitions, maxims, and figures, which were so interwoven with his main arguments that his speeches were apt to weary men who cared for nothing, and could not be expected to care for anything, but the question before the House and the most expeditious way to settle it.

Though fraught with all learning, yet straining his throat
To persuade Tommy Townshend to lend him a vote;
Who, too deep for his hearers, still went on refining,
And thought of convincing, while they thought of dining.1

Johnson says that Burke's early speeches "filled the town with wonder," but adds that "he spoke too often and too long." Not that his speeches always went wide of the mark in delivery, for they were sometimes remarkably effective; but Burke frequently combined his thoughts and knowledge in propositions so weighty and strong that the minds of ordinary hearers were not on the instant prepared for them. Boswell once asked him why he took so much pains with his speeches, knowing that not one vote would be gained by them. Burke replied that his reputation was at stake, and further, that although the House might not grant his whole contention, a law was frequently so modified as to be less oppressive. "Aye, sir," Johnson broke in, "and there is a gratification of pride. Though we cannot outvote them, we will outargue them." "Outarguing," says Morley, "is not the right word. Burke surrenders himself wholly to the matter, and follows up, though with a strong and close tread, all the excursions to which it may give rise in an elastic intelligence." Yet always the "strong and close tread." Take the speech on Conciliation, for example. Whatever may be the intricacies of its details, and although the solidity

1 From Goldsmith's Retaliation.

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