''Tpresent confusion you settle a permanent contingent, • which will and must be trifling, and then you have iib\ effectual revenue; or you change the quota at every exr-, BURKE'S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 123 gency, and then on every new repartition you will have a new quarrel.
[130] Eeflect, besides, that when you have fixed a quota for every colony, you have not provided for prompt and punctual payment. Suppose one, two, five, ten years' arrears: you can not issue a treasury extent against the failing colony. You must make new Boston Port Bills, new restrainiog laws, new acts for dragging men to Eng- land for trial. You must send out new fleets, new armies. All is to begin again. From this day forward the empire is never to know an hour's tranquillity. An intestine fire will be kept alive in the bowels of the colonies, which one time or other must consume this whole empire. I allow indeed that the Empire of Germany raises her reve- nue and her troops by quotas and contingents; but the revenue of the empire, and the, army of the empire, is the worst revenue and the worst army in the world.
[131] Instead of a standing revenue, you will there- fore have a perpetual quarrel. Indeed, the noble lord who proposed this project of a ransom by auction seemed himself to be of that opinion. His project was rather designed for breaking the union of the colonies than for establishing a revenue. He confessed, he apprehended, that his proposal would not be to their taste. I say this scheme of disunion seems to be at the bottom of the proj- ect; for I will not suspect that the noble lord meant nothing but merely to delude the nation by an airy phan- tom which he never intended to realize. But whatever his views may be, as I propose the peaee and union of the colonies as the very foundation of my plan, it can not accord with one whose foundation is perpetual discord.
[132] Compare the two. This I offer to give you is plain and simple; the other full of perplexed and intri- cate mazes. This is mild; that harsh. This is found 124 BUEKE'S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION by experience effectual for its purposes; the other,s a new project. This is universal; the other calculated for certain colonies only. This is immediate in its con- ciliatory operation; the other remote, contingent, full of hazard. Mine is what becomes the dignity of a ruling people — gratuitous, unconditional, and not held out as matter of bargain and sale. I have done my duty in proposing it to you. I have indeed tired you by a long discourse; but this is the misfortune of those to whose influence nothing will be conceded, and who must win every inch of their ground by argument. You have heard me with goodness; may you decide with wisdom! For my part, I feel my mind greatly disburdened by what I have done to-day. I have been the less fearful of trying your patience, because on this subject I mean to spare it altogether in future. I have this comfort — that in every stage of the American affairs, I have steadily opposed the measures that have produced the confusion, and may bring on the destruction of this empire. I now go so far as to risk a proposal of my own. If I can not give peace to my country, I give it to my conscience.
[133] " But what," says the financier, " is peace to •Cus without money? Your plan gives us no revenue." •• No! But it does; for it secures to the subject the power of EEFUSAL — the first of all revenues. Experi- ence is a cheat and fact a liar, if this power in the sub- ject of proportioning his grant, or of not granting at all, has not been found the richest mine of revenue ever discovered by the skill or by the fortune of man. It does not indeed vote you £152,750: 11: 2f, nor any other paltry limited sum; but it gives the strong box itself, the fund, the bank, from whence only revenues can arise among a people sensible of freedom: Posita luditur rr.rca. Can not you in England, can not you at BURKE'S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 125 this time of day, can not you, a House of Commons, trust to the principle which has raised so mighty a rev- enue and accumulated a debt of near 140,000,000 in this country? Is this principle to be true in England, and false everywhere else? Is it not true in Ireland? Has it not hitherto been true in the colonies? Why should you presume that, in any country, a body duly constituted for any function will neglect to perform its duty, and abdicate its trust? Such a presumption would go against all governments in all modes. But in truth, this dread of penury of supply from a free assembly has no foundation in nature. For first observe, that besides the desire which all men have naturally of supporting the honor of their own government, that sense of dig- nity and that security to property which ever attends freedom, has a tendency to increase the stock of the free community. Most may be taken where most is accumu- lated. And what is the soil or climate where experience has not uniformly proved that the voluntary flow of heaped-up plenty, bursting from the weight of its own rich luxuriance, has ever run with a more copious stream of revenue than could be squeezed from the dry husks of oppressed indigence by the straining of all the politic machinery in the world.
[134] K^ext, we know that parties must ever exist in a free country. We know, too, that the emulations of such parties, their contradictions, their reciprocal necessities, their hopes, and their fears must send them all in their turns to him that holds the balance of the state. The parties are the gamesters; but government keeps the table, and is sure to be the winner in the end. When this game is played, I really think it is more to be feared that the people will be exhausted than that gov- ernment will not be supplied. Whereas, whatever is got by acts of absolute power, ill obeyed because odious, or 126 BURKE'S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION by contracts ill kept because constrained, will be narrow, feeble, uncertain, and precarious.
" Ease would retract Vows made in pain, as violent and void."
[135] I,. for one, protest against compounding our demands. I declare against compounding, for a poor limited sum, the immense, ever-growing, eternal debt, which is due to generous government from protected freedom. And so may I speed in the great object I pro- pose to you, as I think it would not only be an act of injustice, but would be the worst economy in the world, to compel the colonies to a sum certain, either in the way of ransom, or in the way of compulsory compact.
[136] But to clear up my ideas on this subject — a revenue from America transmitted hither— do not de- lude yourselves: you never can receive it— no, not a shilling. We have experience that from remote coun- tries it is not to be expected. If, when you attempted to extract revenue from Bengal, you were obliged to re- turn in loan what you had taken in imposition, what can you expect from North America? For certainly, if ever there was a country qualified to produce wealth, it is India; or an institution fit for the transmission, it is the East India Company. America has none of these aptitudes. If America gives you taxable objects 011 which you lay your duties here, and gives you at the same time a surplus by a foreign sale of her commodi- ties to pay the duties on these objects which you tax at home, she has performed her part to the British revenue. But with regard to her own internal establishments, she may — I doubt not she will — contribute in moderation. I say in moderation; for she ought not to be permitted to exhaust herself. She ought to be reserved to a war, the weight of which, with the enemies that we are most BURKE'S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 127 likely to have, must be considerable in her quarter of the globe. There she may serve you, and serve you essentially.
[137] For that service, for all service, whether oi\. revenue, trade, or empire, my trust is in her interest in the British Constitution. My hold of the colonies is in the close affection which grows from common names, from kindred blood, from similar privileges, and equal protection. These are ties which, though light as air, are as strong as links of iron. Let the colonies always keep the idea of their civil rights associated with your government — they will cling and grapple to you, and no force under heaven will be of power to tear them from their allegiance. But let it be once understood that your government may be one thing and their privileges another; that these two things may exist without any mutual relation — the cement is gone, the cohesion is loosened, and everything hastens to decay and dissolu- tion. As long as you have the wisdom to keep the sov- ereign authority of this country as the sanctuary of lib- erty, the sacred temple consecrated to our common faith, wherever the chosen race and sons of England worship freedom, they will turn their faces toward you. The more they multiply, the more friends you will have; the more ardently they love liberty, the more perfect will be their obedience. Slavery they can have anywhere. It is a weed that grows in every soil. They may have it from Spain; they may have it from Prussia. But until you become lost to all feeling of your true in- terest and your natural dignity, freedom they can have from none but you. This is the commodity of price, of which you have the monopoly. This is the true Act of Navigation which binds to you the commerce of the colonies, and through them secures to you the wealth of the world. Deny them this participation of freedom, 128 BURKE'S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION and you break that sole bond which originally made, and must still preserve, the unity of the empire. Do not entertain so weak an imagination as that your regis- ters and your bonds, your affidavits and your suffer- ances, your cockets and your clearances, are what form the great securities of your commerce. Do not dream that your letters of office and your instructions and your suspending clauses are the things that hold together the great contexture of the mysterious whole. These things do not make your government. Dead instru- ments, passive tools as they are, it is the spirit of the English communion that gives all their life and efficacy to them. It is the spirit of the English Constitution, which, infused through the mighty mass, pervades, feeds, unites, invigorates, vivifies every part of the em- pire, even down to the minutest member.
[138] Is it not the same virtue which does every- thing for us here in England? Do you imagine, then, that it is the Land Tax Act which raises your revenue? that it is the annual vote in the committee of supply which gives you your army? or that it is the Mutiny Bill which inspires it with bravery and discipline? No! surely no! It is the love of the people; it is their attachment to their government, from the sense of the deep stake they have in such a glorious institution, which gives you your army and your navy, and infuses into both that liberal obedience without which your army would be a base rabble, and your navy nothing but rotten timber.
[139] All this, I know well enough, will sound wild and chimerical to the profane herd of those vulgar and mechanical politicians who have no place among us — a sort of people who think that nothing exists but what is gross and material; and who, therefore, far from being qualified to be directors of the great movement of em- BURKE'S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 129 pire, are not fit to turn a wheel in the machine. But to men truly initiated and rightly taught, these ruling and master principles which, in the opinion of such men as I have mentioned, have no substantial existence, are ii>. truth everything, and all in all. Magnanimity in poli- tics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go ill together. If we are conscious of our situation and glow with zeal to fill our place as becomes our station and ourselves, we ought to auspi* cate all our public proceedings on America with the old warning of the church, Sursum corda! We ought to elevate our minds to the greatness of that trust to which the order of Providence has called us. By advert- ing to the dignity of this high calling, our ancestors have turned a savage wilderness into a glorious empire, and have made the most extensive, and the only honorable conquests, not by destroying, but by promoting the wealth, the number, the happiness of the human race. Let us get an American revenue as we have got an American empire. English privileges have made it all that it is; English privileges alone will make it all it can be.
[140] In full confidence of this unalterable truth, I now (quod felix faustumque sit) lay the first stone of the temple of peace; and I move you — That the colonies and plantations of Great Britain in North America, consisting of fourteen separate governments, and con- taining two millions and upwards of free inhabitants, have not had the liberty and privilege of electing and sending any knights and burgesses, or others, to represent them in the high court of Parliament.
[End of speech, as delivered.]
[141] Upon this resolution the previous question was put, but the resolution failed of adoption— yeas 78, noes 270.
130 BURKE'S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION [142] As the propositions were opened separately in the bpdy of the speech, the reader perhaps may wish to see the whole of them together in the form in which they were moved for. The first four motions and the last had the previous question put on them. The others were negatived. The words in italics were, by amend- ment, left out of the motion. Moved, [143] That the colonies and plantations of Great Britain in North America, consisting of fourteen separate governments, and containing two millions and upwards of free inhabitants, have not had the liberty and priv- ilege of electing and sending any knights and burgesses, or others, to represent them in the high court of Parlia- ment.
[144] That the said colonies and plantations have been made liable to, and bounden by, several subsidies, payments, rates, and taxes, given and granted by Parlia- ment, though the said colonies and plantations have not their knights and burgesses in the said high court of Parliament, of their own election, to represent the con- dition of their country; by lack whereof they have been oftentimes touched and grieved by subsidies given, granted, and assented to, in the said court, in a manner prejudi- cial to the commomvealth, quietness, rest, and peace of the subjects inhabiting within the same.
[145] That from the distance of the said colonies, and from other circumstances, no method hath hitherto been devised for procuring a representation in Parlia- ment for the said colonies.
[146] That each of the said colonies hath with- in itself a body, chosen in part or in the whole by the freemen, freeholders, or other free inhabitants thereof, commonly called the General Assembly, or General Court; with powers legally to raise, levy, and BURKE'S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION assess, according to the several usage of such colonies, duties and taxes toward defraying all sorts of public services.
[147] That the said General Assemblies, General Courts, or other bodies, legally qualified as aforesaid, have at sundry times freely granted several large sub- sidies and public aids for his Majesty's service, ac- cording to their abilities, when required thereto by letter from one of his Majesty's principal secretaries of state; and that their right to grant the same and their cheerfulness and sufficiency in the said grants have been at sundry times acknowledged by Parlia- ment.
[148] That it hath been found by experience that the manner of granting the said supplies and aids by the said General Assemblies hath been more agreeable to the inhabitants of the said colonies, and more beneficial and conducive to the public service, than the mode of giv- ing and granting aids and subsidies in Parliament to be raised and paid in the said colonies.
[149] That it may be proper to repeal an act made in the seventh year of the reign of his present Majesty, en- titled, " An act for granting certain duties in the British colonies and plantations in America; for allowing a draw- back of the duties of customs, upon the exportation from this kingdom, of coffee and cocoanuts, of the produce of the said colonies or plantations; for discontinuing the drawbacks payable on China earthenware exported to America; and for more effectually preventing the clandestine running of goods in the said colonies and plantations."
[150] That it may be proper to repeal an act made in the fourteenth year of the reign of his present Maj- esty, entitled, "An act to discontinue, in such manner and for such time as are therein mentioned, the landing 132 BURKE'S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION and discharging, lading or shipping of goodt,, wares, and merchandise, at the town and within the harbor of Bos- ton, in the province of Massachusetts Bay, in North America."
[151] That it may be proper to repeal an act, made in the fourteenth year of the reign of his present Majesty, entitled, " An act for the impartial administra- tion of justice in cases of persons questioned for any acts done by them in the execution of the law, or for the suppression of riots and tumults, in the province of Massachusetts Bay, in New England."
[152] That it is proper to repeal an act, made in the fourteenth year of the reign of his present Majesty, entitled, " An act for the better regulating the govern- ment of the province of Massachusetts Bay, in New England."
[153] That it is proper to explain and amend an act made in the thirty-fifth year of the reign of King Henry the Eighth, entitled, "An act for the trial of treasons committed out of the king's dominions."
[154] That from the time when the General Assem- bly, or General Court, of any colony or plantation in North America, shall have appointed, by act of Assembly duly confirmed, a settled salary to the offices of the chief justice and other judges of the superior courts, it may be proper that the said chief justice and other judges of the superior courts of such colony shall hold his and their office and offices during their good behav- ior, and shall not be removed therefrom but when the said removal shall be adjudged by his Majesty in council, upon a hearing on complaint from the General Assembly, or on a complaint from the governor, or council, or the House of Eepresentatives, severally, of the colony in which the said chief justice and other judges have exercised the said office.
BURKE'S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION 133 [155] That it may be proper to regulate the courts of admiralty or vice-admiralty authorized by the fif- teenth chapter of the fourth of George the Third, in such a manner as to make the same more commodious to those who sue or are sued in the said courts, and to provide for the more decent maintenance of the judges of the same.
NOTES ON THE TEXT ^[ 1. Sir. The Speaker of the House of Commons, at that time Sir Fletcher Norton.
Austerity of the Chair. The office of Speaker of the House of Commons necessitates the use of the most impartial judgment. Burke had some cause to mollify the austerity of the Chair, and for begging a degree of " indulgence toward human frailty "; for he had the habit of delivering long speeches, interesting to read, but tiresome to hear. Despite contradictory statements of contempo- raries that he was or was not a pleasing speaker, Burke must at times have been very tedious and wearisome to his hearers. It is impossible that such a speech as the Speech on Conciliation should have been intelligible, in all its interrelations and in its interdepend- ence, to any except the most intelligent members of the House of Commons. Burke, in the overrefinement of his argument, usually shot above his audience. His speeches had to be studied to be under* stood. For example, one member who left the House in disgust upon the day of this speech afterward carried a copy in his pocket, in order to read and reread it, until the copy was worn out. At times Burke's tiresomeness was such that when he arose many members promptly left the hall, to return only when Burke had finished or when a vote was to be taken. The younger members called him " the dinner bell," because his arising was the signal for a general departure o> the members, as if for dinner. Goldsmith wrote of him: "...Too deep for his hearers, still went on refining, And thought of convincing while the}' thought of dining."
His first sentence indicates that he was somewhat reluctant to begih another long speech, yet his conviction of the exigencies of the cas% was such that he could not refrain from speaking.
Ohject depending: of course, the conciliation of the colonies. The passage by the House of Commons of the Grand Penal Bill, which 136 BURKE'S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION Burke had vigorously opposed, compelled him to resort to other means than the discussion of the taxation question to secure the liberties of the colonists and the commercial prosperity of England; so he purposed, on this day, March 22, 1775, to secure an admission from the House of Commons, by the introduction and passage of the resolutions given at the close of the speech, that the colonists did not have the rights of Englishmen as guaranteed to them in their charters. The passage of these resolutions (which see, ^f 140 and following), which it would seem almost impossible to vote against, would be a virtual confession by the ministerial party that the Grand Penal Bill and Lord North s •' project " (If 10, note) were iniquitous. The placing of the ministry in an equivocal situation was a part of the " object depending."
Event of my motion. This means the result of the putting of his resolutions, llf 140-155.
Grand Penal Bill. This was a bill introduced by Lord North, the Prime Minister, on February 10, 1775, to prevent the Ne-? England colonies from carrying on trade with any country except Great Brit- ain, Ireland, and the British West Indies, and to restrict their fish- ing in the Newfoundland fisheries under conditions that would render profitable fishing impossible. The title of the Grand Penal Bill was as follows: "An act to restrain the commerce of the prov- inces of Massachusetts Bay and New Hampshire, and colonies of Connecticut and Rhode Island, and Providence Plantation, in North America, to Great Britain, Ireland, and the British Islands in the West Indies; and to prohibit such provinces and colonies from carrying on any fishery on the Banks of Newfoundland, and other places therein mentioned, under certain conditions and limitations."
The colonists had refused to receive the British tea ships or to carry on trade with British merchants on account of the Tea Act. Lord North, like the dog in the manger, determined that if they would not trade with Great Britain they should not trade anywhere. As the inhabitants of nearly all of the New England coast towns were engaged in fishing, principally in the Newfoundland fisheries, the clause concerning fishing would result in throwing them out of employment, thus proving a terrible retaliation for their refusing to trade with Great Britain. Burke had resisted the passage of the bill, but it had passed in spite of him, and had been sent to the House of Lords. The unsympathetic House of Lords was, of course, expected to pass the bill at once. They did better. They returned it with the recommendation that it be so amended as to include all NOTES ON THE TEXT 137- the other colonies except New York, Delaware, North Carolina, and Georgia. Burke chooses to regard this return of the bill to the House of Commons almost as a special providence, for thus the House was " put once more in possession of its deliberative capa- city ": that is, it was able to discuss again the original question, and was " nearly as free to choose a plan for...American govern- ment as...on the first day of the session."
If we incline to the side of conciliation: a reference to Lord North's resolution, which is given under " the project " in the notes on ^[ 10, which see. It was this bill which Burke says would bring about an " auction of finance," ^f 10.
Coercion and restraint. In what particular were the colonists coerced? In what restrained? Is this an "incongruous mix- ture " I Superior warning voice. What does Burke mean by this?
^[ 2. An awful subject. These words, so real to Burke, must have meant little or nothing to the average member of the House. Our modern knowledge of the tremendous destinies in store for those colonies will show us how deep and clear must have been Burke's insight, and make us cease to wonder that he risked another conces- sion to his '• frailty."
First had the honor of a seat: in 1766, about the time of the repeal of the Stamp Act, which was repealed by a large majority in the Rockingham administration.
I was obliged to take more than common pains. Burke knew more about America than did any other man in England. Students of this speech can not fail to discover the marvelous skill and patience with which Burke had "collected material" for his speech. He seemed to know every detail; as, for example, in ^ 18 to 25 and 103. In the Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol he says: "I think I know America. If I do not, my ignorance is incurable, for I have spared no pains to understand it."
Fixed ideas. Ideas based upon true principles of government; not vacillating ideas, but ideas based upon a thorough understand- ing of the situation; ideas that could not be " blown about by every wind of fashionable doctrine" (Ephesians iv, 14), as the opinions of men who have but little information upon a subject are likely to undergo a change upon the receipt of new information. (See note on "occasional system," ^j" 16.)
^[ 3. In perfect concurrence. See note on " first had the honor of 138 BURKE'S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION ^[ 4. Enlarged view. Members of the House of Commons wer« constantly studying the great questions of the hour, and, like Burke, were bringing to the notice of the House information not attainable in the aggregate by any individual, so Parliament would have " an enlarged view " upon any public question.
Complaint. Used in the sense of " disease "; the same is true of distemper.
^f 5. A worthy member: Mr. Rose Fuller, member for Rye.
Filled the chair of the American Committee: occupied the chair when the House sat as a committee of the whole on American affairs Former methods: that is, the plan of obstructing the passage of any bill proposed by the majority or government party, as had been the conduct, during that session, of the minority, of which Burk? was a member.
Public tribunal: the English voting public. In England a ses sion of the House of Commons usually comes to an end when tin, majority party suffers defeat upon some important measure; theiu the House is prorogued and a new election is held, in which, if,•» majority for the old government party is again returned and thus placed in power, it is considered that the nation, or " the public tribunal," has ratified the conduct of the majority or government party. If a majority for the opposition is returned, it is under- stood that the former government party has, as might be said, been convicted before " the public tribunal," and deposed.
Play the game out: comparison of the contest between the ma- jority and the opposition to a game at cards.
Produce our hand: to cease obstructing legislation, and to pro- pose our own plan in the place of the one we have been opposing. As nearly all the members of the House of Commons gambled at cards, Burke's figure was doubtless well understood.
Principles of colony government. See note on " fixed ideas," ^[ 2.