EDMUND BURKE Born: Dublin, 1728. Died: Beaconsfield, Bucks, July 8, 1797. The first and second pieces were published Printed by R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, Edinburgh. DA 38 GENERAL INTRODUCTION SOME knowledge of the life of Burke, and of the great political events which occurred during his lifetime, is requisite to a true appreciation of his writings and speeches. As these contain much moral instruction and frequent appeals to the highest principles of human conduct, it will be pleasant for the student of Burke to bear in mind that his life was free from all moral blemish, and that, in his youthful piety and virtuous manhood, he stands conspicuous among public men. During Burke's life occurred the victories of Clive, which laid the foundation of the British Empire in the East; the expansion of our Colonial Empire by the vigorous war policy of the elder Pitt; the marvellous growth and prosperity of the American Colonies, with the conflict which ended in their independence; the rise of Ireland from a state of degradation and misery, to the exercise of the right of self-government; the enormous crimes which our administrators in India committed, and the unparalleled exertions of Burke to bring their authors to punishment; the overthrow of the ancient Monarchy of France, with the crimes that followed through the unjust intervention of the principal European Powers. The writings and speeches of Burke have the highest interest for the political student and the social reformer. Those of his earliest years are marked by the greatest thoughtfulness and severity of style; his later writings, commencing in 1790, are full of ornament and decoration. They were composed when there was too much power in the pencil and too much glow of colouring; when his imagination had ceased to be under the due control of his judgment. His latest writings and speeches contributed to the most bloody wars and the exhaustion of the resources of his country. The same writings supplied a political party with phrases, metaphors, and prophecies, which helped to delay, for forty years, the passage of just and necessary measures of reform. From his writings and speeches, however, may be selected the most luminous principles for the guidance of practical legislation. The student of Burke who desires to establish good government, and to take an active and beneficial part in politics, will never be without a principle or rule to guide him. If called upon to vote in minorities and to advocate unacceptable opinions, he will derive courage and instruction from the method in which Burke conducted an Opposition extending over twenty-three years of his Parliamentary life. The student of Burke's works will see how a Ministry may be marked by a dull uniformity of mischief; how a Ministry may exist, whilst all government worthy of the name is gone; how Ministers in the past have thought only of taxation, and have discarded economy and a wise oversight of expenditure; how Ministers have been kept in office, simply to pursue a cruel, wasteful, and degrading policy. The student of Burke will learn that the only obedience, that rulers should think worth having, is that which results from a deep and lasting attachment to the methods they adopt, and to the institutions they create. Burke was by birth an Irishman, and had much to do with the efforts by which the Irish people rose during his lifetime, from degradation to the exercise of the right of self-government; by which their trade was released from unjust restrictions, and the Catholics were partially relieved from the penalties of a cruel penal code. The years 1728 and 1729 were years of a memorable scarcity, almost reaching to a famine, accompanied by a complete stagnation of trade and manufactures. Wretchedness, riots, and emigration formed the chief events in the history of Ireland during these and many succeeding years. "The Revolution," says Lord Macaulay, " came bringing to England and Scotland civil and spiritual freedom; to Ireland subjugation, degradation, and persecution." Trade and liberty had departed from the Irish people. Let Burke himself describe the condition of his native land at the time of his auspicious birth. "By the total reduction of the kingdom of Ireland in 1691, the ruin of the native Irish, and, in a great measure too, of the first races of the English, was completely accomplished. The new English interest in Ireland was settled with as solid a stability as anything in human affairs can look for. All the penal laws which were made after the Revolution were manifestly the effects of national hatred and scorn of the English towards a conquered people, whom the victors delighted to trample on, and were not at all afraid to provoke. They were not the effects of their fears, but their security. They who carried on the system looked to the irresistible force of Great Britain for their support in their acts of power. They were quite certain that no complaints of the native would be heard on the other side of the water, with any other sentiments than those of contempt and indignation. Their cries only served to augment their tortures. Indeed, at that time in England, the double name of the complainants, Irish and Papist (it would be hard to say singly which was the most odious), shut up the hearts of every one against them. Whilst that temper prevailed, in all its force, to a time within our memory, every measure was pleasing and popular, just in proportion as it tended to harass and ruin a set of people, who were looked upon as enemies to God and man, and indeed, as a race of bigoted savages, who were a disgrace to human nature itself." Burke used all his endeavours to procure a relaxation of the penal laws against Roman Catholics, and by |