hat endeavours were not wholy without success and the unthinking people in many places became ill affected towards us on this account. For the ministers proceeded in your affairs, just as they did with regard to those of America. They always represented you as a parcel of blockheads without sense, or even feeling; that all your words were only the echo of faction here; and (as you have seen above) you had not understanding enough to know that your trade was cramped by restrictive acts of the British parliament, unless we had, for factious purposes, given you the information. They were so far from giving the least intimation of the measures which have since taken place, that those who were supposed the best to know their intentions, declared them impossible in the actual state of the two kingdoms, and spoke of nothing but an act of union, as the only way that could be found of giving freedom of trade to Ireland, consistently with the interests of this kingdom. Even when the session opened, Lord North declared that he did not know what remedy to apply to a disease, of the cause of which he was ignorant; and ministry not being then entirely resolved how far they should submit to your energy, they, by anticipation, set the above author, or some of his associates, to fill the newspapers with invectives against us, as distressing the ministers by extravagant demands in favour of Ireland. I need not inform you, that every thing they asserted of the steps taken in Ireland, as the result of our machinations, was utterly false and groundless. For myself, I seriously protest to you, that I neither wrote a word or received a line upon any matter relative to the trade of Ireland, or to the politics of it, from the beginning of the last session to the day that I was honoured with your letter. It would be an affront to the talents in the Irish parliament to say one word more. What was done in Ireland during that period, in and out of parliament, never will be forgot ten. You raised an army new in its kind, and adequate to its purposes. It effected its end without its exertion. It was not under the authority of law, most certainly; but it derived from an authority still higher; and as they say of faith, that it is not contrary to reason, but above it; so this army did not so much contradict the spirit of the law as supersede it. What you did in the legislative body is above all praise. By your proceeding with regard to the supplies, you revived the grand use and characteristic benefit of parliament, which was on the point of being entirely lost among us. These sentiments I never concealed, and never shall; and Mr. Fox expressed them with his usual power when he spoke on the subject. All this is very honourabie to you. But in what light must we see it? How are we to consider your armament without commission from the crown, when some of the first people in this kingdom have been refused arms, at the time they did not only not reject, bat solicited the king's commissions? Here to arm and embody would be represented as little less than high treason, if done on private authorityWith you it receives the thanks of a privy counsellor of Great Britain, who obeys the Irish house of lords, in that point, with pleasure; and is made secretary of state, the moment he lands here, for his reward. You shortened the credit given to the crown to six months-You hung up the public credit of your kingdom by a thread-You refused to raise any taxes, whilst you confessed the public debt, and public exigencies, to be great and urgent beyond example. You certainly acted in a great style, and on sound and invincible principles. But if we, in the opposition which fills Ireland with such loyal horrours, had even attempted, what we never did even attempt, the smallest delay, or the smallest limitation of supply, in order to a constitutional coercion of the crown, we should have been decried by all the court and tory mouths of this kingdom, as a desperate faction, aiming at the direct ruin of the country, and to surrender it, bound hand and foot, to a foreign enemy. By actually doing what we never ventured to attempt, you have paid your court with such address, and have won so much favour with his majesty and his cabinet, that they have, of their special grace and mere motion, raised you to new titles; and, for the first time, in a speech from the throne, complimented you with the appellation of" faithful and loyal"--and, in order to insult our low spirited and degenerate obedience, have thrown these epithets and your resistance together in our teeth! What do you think were the feelings of every man, who looks upon parliament in an higher light than that of a market-overt for legalizing a base traffic of votes and pensions, when he saw you employ such means of coercion to the crown, in order to coerce our parliament through that medium? How much his majesty is pleased with his part of the civility must be left to his own taste. But as to us, you declared to the world, that you knew that the way of bringing us to reason, was to apply yourselves to the true source of all our opinions, and the only motive to all our conduct! Now, it seems, you think yourselves affronted, because a few of us express some indignation at the minister who has thought fit to strip us stark naked, and expose the true state of our poxed and pestilential habit to the world! Think, or say, what you will in Ireland, I shall ever think it a crime hardly to be expiated by his blood. He might, and ought, by a longer continuance, or by an earlier meeting of this parliament, to have given us the credit of some wisdom, in foreseeing and anticipating an approaching force. So far from it, Lord Gower, coming out of his own cabinet, declares, that one principal cause of his resignation was, his not being able to prevail on the present minister to give any sort of application to this business. Even on the late meeting of parliament, nothing determinate could be drawn from him, or from any of his associates, until you had actually passed the short money bill; which measure they flattered themselves, and assured others, you would never come up to. Disappointed in their expectation at seeing the siege raised, they surrendered at discretion. Judge, my dear sir, of our surprise, at finding your censure directed against those whose only crime was, in accusing the ministers of not having prevented your demands by our graces; of not having given you the natural advantages of your country, in the most ample, the most early, and the most liberal manner; and for not naving given away authority in such a manner as to ensure friendship. That you should make the panegyric of the ministers is what I expected; because in praising their bounty, you paid a just compliment to your own force. But that you should rail at us, either individually, or collectively, is what I can scarcely think a natural proceeding. I can easily conceive that gentlemen might grow frightened at what they had done;-that they might imagine they had undertaken a business above their direction; that having obtained a state of independence for their country, they meant to take the diserted helm into their own hands, and supply by their very real abilities the total inefficacy of the nominal government. All these might be real, and might be very justifiable motives for their reconciling themselves cordially to the present court system. But I do not so well discover the reasons that could induce them, at the first feeble dawning of life in this country, to do all in their power to cast a cloud over it; and to prevent the least hope of our affecting the neccessary reformations, which are aimed at in our constitution, and in our national œconomy. But, it seems, I was silent at the passing the resolutions. Why-what had I to say? If I had thought them too much, I should have been accused of an endeavour to inflame England. If I should represent them as too little, I should have been charged with a design of fomenting the discontents of Ireland into actual rebellion. The treasury bench represented that the affair was a matter of, state;-they represented it truly. I therefore only asked, whether they knew these propositions to be such as would satisfy Ireland; for, if they were so, they would satisfy me. This did not indicate, that I thought them too ample. In this our silence (however dishonourable to parliament) there was one advantage; that the whole passed, as far as it is gone, with complete unanimity; and so quickly, that there was no time left to excite any opposition to it out of doors. In the West India business, reasoning on what had lately passed in the parliament of Ireland, and on the mode in which it was opened here, I thought I saw much matter of perplexity. But I have now better reason than ever to be pleased with my silence. If I had spoken; one of the most honest and able men* in the Irish parliament, would probably have thought my observation an endeavour to sow dissension, which he was resolved to prevent; and one of the most ingenious and one of the most amiable ment that ever graced yours or any house of parliament, might have looked on it as chimera. In the silence I observed, I was strongly countenanced (to say no more of it) by every gentleman of Ireland, that I had the honour of conversing with in London. The only word for that reason, which I spoke, was to restrain a worthy county member, who had received some communication from a great trading place in the county he represents, which, if it had been opened to the house, would have led to a perplexing discussion of one of the most troublesome matters that could arise in this business. I got up to put a stop to it; and I believe, if you knew what the topic was, you would commend my discretion. That it should be a matter of public discretion in me, to be silent on the affairs of Ireland, is what, on all accounts, I bitterly lament. I stated to the house what I felt; and I felt as strongly as human sensibility can feel, the extinction of my parliamentary capacity, where I wished to use it most. When I came into this parliament, just fourteen years ago into this parliament, then, in vulgar opinion at least, the presiding council of the greatest em pire existing, (and perhaps, all things consi dered, that ever did exist,) obscure, and a stran * Mr. Grattan. Mr. Hussey Burgh. Mr. Stanley, member for Lancashire. ger as I was, I considered myself as raised to the highest dignity to which a creature of our species could aspire. In that opinion, one of the chief pleasures in my situation, what was first and uppermost in my thoughts, was the hope, without injury to this country, to be somewhat useful to the place of my birth and education, which, in many respects internal and external, I thought ill and impolitically governed. But when I found that the house, surrendering itself to the guidance of an authority not grown out of an experienced wisdom and integrity, but out of the accidents of court favour, had become the sport of the passions of men at one rash and pusillanimous;-that it had even got into the habit of refusing every thing to reason, and surrendering every thing to force, all my power of obliging either my country or individuals was gone; all the lustre of my imaginary rank was tarnished; and I felt degraded even by my elevation. I said this, or something to this effect. If it gives offence to Ireland, I am sorry for it; it was the reason I gave for my silence; and it was, as far as it went, the true one. With you, this silence of mine and of others was represented as factious, and as a discountenance to the measure of your relief. Do you think us children? If it had been our wish to embroil matters, and, for the sake of distressing ministry, to commit the two kingdoms in a dispute, we had nothing to do but (without at all condemning the propositions) to have gone into the commercial detail of the objects of them. It could not have been refused to us: and you, who know the nature of business so well, must know, that this would have caused such delays, and given rise during that delay, to such discussions, as all the wis dom of your favourite minister could never have settled. But indeed you mistake your men. We tremble at the idea of a disunion of these two nations. The only thing in which we differ with you, is this-that we do not think your attaching yourselves to the court, and quarrelling with the independent part of this people, is the way to promote the union of two free countries, or of holding them together, by the most natural and salutary ties. You will be frightened when you see this long letter. I smile when I consider the length of it, myself. I never, that I remember, wrote any of the same extent. But it shows me, that the reproaches of the country that I once belonged to, and in which I still have a dearness of instinct more than I can justify to reason, make a greater impression on me than I had imagined. But parting words are admitted to be a little tedious, because they are not likely to be renewed. If it will not be making your. self as troublesome to others as I am to you, I shall be obliged to you, if you will show this, at their greater leisure, to the speaker, to your excellent kinsman, to Mr. Grattan, Mr. Yelverton, and Mr. Daly ;-all these I have the honour of being personally known to, except Mr. Yelverton, to whom I am only known by my obligations to him. If you live in any habits with my old friend the provost, I shall be glad that he too sees this my humble apology. Adieu! once more accept my best thanks for the interest you take in me. Believe, that it is received by an heart not yet so old, as to have lost its susceptibility. All here give you the best old-fashioned wishes of the season, and believe me, with the greatest truth and regard, My dear Sir, Your inost faithful and obliged humble servant, EDMUND BURKE, Beaconsfield, New Year's day, 1780. I am frightened at the trouble I give you and our friends; but I recollect, that you are mostly lawyers, and habituated to read long tiresome papers-and, where your friendship is concerned, without a fee; I am sure, too, that you will not act the lawyer in scrutinizing too minutely every expression which my haste may make me use. I forgot to mention my friend O'Hara and others, but you will communicate it as you please. DEAR SIR, A LETTER TO JOHN MERLOTT, ESQ. I AM very unhappy to find, that my conduct in the business of Ireland, on a former occasion, had made many to be cold and indifferent, who would otherwise have been warm in my favour. I really thought, that events would have produced a quite contrary effect; and would have proved to all the inhabitants of Bristol, that it was no desire of opposing myself to their wishes, but a certain knowledge of the necessity of their affairs, and a tender regard to their honour and interest, which induced me to take the part which I then took. They placed me in a situation, which might enable me to discern what was fit to be done on a consideration of the relative circumstances of this country and all its neighbours. This was what you could not so well do yourselves; but you had a right to expect that I should avail myself of the advantage which I derived from your favour. Under the impression of this duty and this trust, I had endeavoured to render, by preventive graces and concessions, every act of power at the same time an act of lenity; the result of English bounty, and not of English timidity and distress. I really flattered myself, that the events, which have proved beyond dispute the prudence of such a maxim, would have obtained pardon for me, if not approbation. But if I have not been so fortunate, I do most sincerely regret my great loss; with this comfort, however, that, if I have disobliged my constituents, it was not in pursuit of any sinister interest or any party passion of my own, but in endeavouring to save them from disgrace, along with the whole community to which they and I belong. I shall be concerned for this, and very much so; but I should be more concerned, if, in gratifying a present humour of theirs, I had rendered myself unworthy of their former or their future choice. I confess that I could not bear to face my constituents at the next general election, if I had been a rival to Lord North in the glory of having refused some small, insignificant concessions, in favour of Ireland, to the arguments and supplications of English members of parliament; and in the very next session, An eminent merchant in the city of Bristol, of which Mr. Burke was one of the representa. tives in parliament. It relates to the same subject as the preceding letter. on the demand of 40,000 Irish bayonets, of having made a speech of two hours long to prove that former conduct was founded upon my no one right principle, either of policy, justice, or commerce. I never heard a more elaborate, more able, more convincing, and more shameful speech. The debator obtained credit; but the statesman was disgraced for ever. Amends were made for having refused small, but timely concessions, by an unlimited and untimely surrender, not only of every one of the objects of former restraints, but virtually of the whole legislative power itself which had made them. For it is not necessary to inform you that the unfortunate parliament of this kingdom did not dare to qualify the very liberty she gave of trading with her own plantations, by applying, of her own authority, any one of the commercial regulations to the new traffic of Ireland, which bind us here under the several acts of navigation. We were obliged to refer them to the parliament of Ireland, as conditions; just in the same manner, as if we were bestowing a privilege of the same sort on France and Spain, or any other independent power, and, indeed, with more studied caution than we should have used, not to shock the principle of their independence. How the minister reconciled the refusal to reason, and the surrender to arms, raised in defiance of the prerogatives of the crown to his master, I know not; it has probably been settled, in some way or other, between themselves. But however the king and his ministers may settle the question of his dignity and his rights, I thought it became me, by vigilance and foresight, to take care of yours; I thought I ought rather to lighten the ship in time than to expose it to a total wreck. The conduct pursued seemed to me without weight or judgment, and more fit for a member for Banbury than a member for Bristol. I stood therefore silent with grief and vexation on that day of the signal shame and humiliation of this degraded king and country. But it seems the pride of Ireland, in the day of her power, was equal to ours, when we dreamt we were powerful too. I have been abused there even for my silence, which was construed into a desire of exciting discontent in England. But, thank God, my letter to Bristol was in print; my sentiments on the policy of the measure were known and deter mined, and such as no man could think me absurd enough to contradict. When I am no longer a free agent, I am obliged in the crowd to yield to necessity; it is surely enough that I silently submit to power; it is enough that I do not foolishly affront the conquerour; it is too hard to force me to sing his praises whilst I am led in triumph before him; or to make the panegyric of our own minister, who would put me, neither in a condition to surrender with honour, or to fight with the smallest hope of victory. I was, I confess, sullen, and silent on that day; and shall continue so, until I see some disposition to inquire into this and other causes of the national disgrace. If I suffer in my reputation for it in Ireland, I am sorry; but it neither does nor can affect me so nearly as my suffering in Bristol, for having wished to unite the interests of the two nations in a manner that would secure the supremacy of this. Will you have the goodness to excuse the length of this letter. My earnest desire of explaining myself in every point which may affect the mind of any worthy gentleman in Bristol is the cause of it. To yourself, and to your liberal and manly notions, I know it is not so necessary. Believe me, My dear sir, your most faithful and obedient humble servant, EDMUND BURKE. Beaconsfield, To John Merlott, Esq. Bristol. LETTERS, WITH REFLECTIONS ON THE EXECUTIONS OF THE RIOTERS IN 1780.* TO THE LORD CHANCELLOR. MY LORD, I HOIE I am not too late with the inclosed slight observations. If the execution already ordered cannot be postponed, might I venture to recommend that it should extend to one only; and then the plan suggested in the inclosed paper may, if your lordship thinks well of it, take place, with such improvements as your better judgment may dictate. As to fewness of the executions, and the good effects of that policy, I cannot for my own part entertain the slightest doubt. If you have no objection, and think it may not occupy more of his magesty's time than such a thing is worth, I should not be sorry that the inclosed was put into the king's hands. I have the honour to be, my lord, Your lordship's most obedient humble servant, EDMUND BURKE. Charles-street, July 10, 1780. It appears by the following extract from a letter written by the earl of Mansfield to Mr. Burke, dated the 17th July, 1780, that these REFLECTIONS had also been communicated to him-"I have received the honour of your letter and very judicious thoughts. Having been so greatly injured myself, I have thought it more decent not to attend the reports, and consequently have not been present at any deliberation upon the subject.". TO THE EARL BATHURST, LORD PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL. MY LORD, I came to town but yesterday, and therefore did not learn more early the probable extent of the executions, in consequence of the late disturbances. I take the liberty of laying before you, with the sincerest deference to your judg ment, what appeared to me, very early, as reasonable in this business. Further thoughts have since occurred to me. I confess my mind is under no small degree of solicitude and anxiety on the subject; I am fully persuaded, that a proper use of mercy would not only recommend the wisdom and steadiness of government, but, if properly used, might be made a means of drawing out the principal movers in this wicked business, who have hitherto eluded your scrutiny. I beg pardon for this intrusion, and have the honour to be, with great regard and esteem, My Lord, Your lordship's most obedient Charles-street, humble servant, July 18, 1780. EDMUND BURKE |