Note
on
Mr.
Burke
,
referring
to
page
17.
*
Some
of
the
author's
friends
in
England
,
although
they
join
with
him
in
censuring
the
writings
of
Mr.
Burke
on
the
French
Revolution
,
are
of
opinion
that
the
picture
here
drawn
of
that
writer
is
too
highly
coloured
;
or
at
least
,
that
the
censure
is
so
severe
as
to
lose
the
effect
that
it
might
otherwise
produce
.
It
is
impossible
to
say
what
effect
,
and
whether
any
,
has
or
will
be
produced
by
this
poem
;
but
,
out
of
respect
to
the
opinion
above
stated
,
it
may
be
proper
to
make
some
observations
on
the
effect
that
has
already
followed
from
the
writings
of
Mr.
Burke
.
I
speak
not
of
what
has
taken
place
in
England
;
where
it
is
supposed
that
,
contrary
to
his
intentions
and
those
of
the
government
that
set
him
at
work
,
his
malicious
attack
upon
liberty
has
opened
a
discussion
which
cannot
be
closed
until
the
whole
system
of
despotism
,
which
he
meant
to
support
,
shall
be
overturned
in
that
country
.
The
present
war
with
France
is
doubtless
the
last
piece
of
delusion
that
a
set
of
hereditary
tyrants
will
ever
be
able
to
impose
upon
the
people
of
England
.
But
this
subject
opens
a
field
of
contemplation
far
more
serious
and
extensive
on
the
continent
of
Europe
;
where
if
Mr.
Burke
can
view
without
horror
the
immensity
of
the
mischiefs
he
has
done
,
he
will
show
himself
worthy
of
much
higher
attributes
of
wickedness
than
have
yet
been
ascribed
to
him
.
It
is
a
painful
task
to
traverse
such
a
wide
scene
of
slaughter
and
desolation
as
now
involves
the
nations
of
Europe
,
and
then
to
lay
it
all
to
the
charge
of
a
single
individual
;
especially
when
we
consider
that
individual
as
having
for
a
long
time
before
,
enjoyed
the
confidence
of
all
good
men
,
and
having
at
last
betrayed
it
from
the
worst
and
vilest
motives
;
as
he
had
established
his
previous
reputation
by
speaking
the
language
of
liberty
,
and
professing
himself
to
be
the
friend
of
national
felicity
.
But
it
is
not
from
a
transitory
disgust
at
his
detestible
principles
,
it
is
from
deliberate
observation
and
mature
conviction
,
that
I
state
it
as
an
historical
fact
,
That
the
present
war
,
with
all
its
train
of
calamities
,
must
be
attributed
almost
exclusively
to
the
pen
of
Mr.
Burke
.
There
is
a
peculiar
combination
of
circumstances
which
threw
this
power
into
his
hands
,
and
which
ought
to
be
duly
considered
,
before
we
come
to
a
decision
on
the
subject
.
The
people
of
England
had
enjoyed
for
several
ages
a
much
greater
portion
of
liberty
than
any
other
people
in
Europe
.
This
had
raised
them
to
a
great
degree
of
eminence
in
many
respects
.
At
the
same
time
that
it
rendered
them
powerful
as
a
nation
,
it
made
them
sober
,
industrious
and
persevering
,
as
individuals
;
it
taught
them
to
think
and
speak
with
a
certain
air
of
dignity
,
independence
and
precision
,
which
was
unknown
in
other
countries
.
This
circumstance
could
not
fail
to
gain
the
admiration
of
foreigners
and
to
excite
a
perpetual
emulation
among
themselves
.
England
has
therefore
produced
more
than
her
proportion
of
the
illustrious
men
of
modern
times
,
especially
in
politics
and
legislation
,
as
these
affairs
came
within
the
reach
of
a
larger
class
of
men
in
that
country
than
in
any
other
.
In
a
nation
where
there
is
an
enormous
civil
list
at
the
disposal
of
the
crown
,
and
a
constitutional
spirit
of
liberty
kept
alive
in
the
people
we
must
necessarily
expect
to
find
two
parties
in
the
government
.
In
such
a
case
,
as
the
king
is
sure
to
carry
all
the
measures
that
he
dares
to
propose
,
the
party
in
favour
of
the
people
are
called
the
opposition
;
and
it
being
always
a
minority
,
it
gives
occasion
for
great
exertion
of
talents
,
and
is
supposed
to
be
the
nurse
of
every
public
virtue
.
Such
has
been
the
composition
of
the
English
government
ever
since
the
last
revolution
.
The
opposition
has
been
the
school
of
great
men
;
its
principle
disciples
have
been
the
apostles
of
liberty
;
and
their
exertions
have
made
the
British
name
respectable
in
every
part
of
the
world
.
Mr.
Burke
had
been
for
many
years
at
the
head
of
this
school
;
and
from
the
brilliant
talents
he
••
covered
in
that
conspicuous
station
,
he
rendered
himself
universally
respected
.
His
eloquence
was
of
that
flowery
and
figurative
kind
,
which
attracted
great
admiration
in
foreign
countries
;
where
it
was
viewed
,
for
the
most
part
,
through
the
medium
of
a
translation
;
so
that
he
was
considered
,
at
least
in
every
country
out
of
England
,
as
the
ablest
advocate
of
liberty
that
then
existed
in
Europe
.
Even
kings
and
tyrants
,
who
hated
the
cause
,
could
not
withhold
their
veneration
from
the
man
.
Under
these
impressions
,
their
attention
was
called
to
the
great
event
of
the
French
revolution
.
It
was
a
subject
which
they
did
not
understand
,
a
business
in
which
they
had
no
intention
to
interfere
;
as
it
was
evidently
no
concern
of
theirs
.
But
viewed
as
a
speculative
point
,
it
is
as
natural
for
kings
as
for
other
persons
to
wait
till
they
learn
what
great
men
have
said
,
before
they
form
their
opinion
.
Mr.
Burke
did
not
suffer
them
to
remain
long
in
suspence
;
but
,
to
enlighten
their
understandings
and
teach
them
how
to
judge
,
he
came
forward
with
his
"
Reflections
on
the
Revolution
in
France
;
"
where
,
in
his
quality
of
the
political
schoolmaster
of
his
age
,
in
his
quality
of
the
professed
enemy
of
tyrants
,
the
friend
of
the
people
,
the
most
enlightened
leader
of
the
most
enlightened
nation
in
Europe
,
he
tells
them
that
this
Revolution
is
an
abominable
usurpation
of
a
gang
of
beggarly
tyrants
;
that
its
principle
is
atheism
and
anarchy
;
that
its
instruments
are
murders
,
rapes
,
and
plunders
;
that
its
object
is
to
hunt
down
religion
,
overturn
society
,
and
deluge
the
world
in
blood
.
—
Then
,
in
the
whining
cant
of
state-piety
,
and
in
the
cowardly
insolence
of
personal
safety
,
he
calls
upon
the
principal
sovereigns
of
Europe
to
unite
in
a
general
confederation
,
to
march
into
France
,
to
interfere
in
the
affairs
of
an
independent
power
,
to
make
war
with
the
principles
which
he
himself
had
long
laboured
to
support
,
to
overturn
the
noblest
monument
of
human
wisdom
,
and
blast
the
fairest
hopes
of
public
happiness
that
the
world
had
ever
seen
.
Copies
of
his
book
were
sent
in
great
profusion
by
the
courts
of
London
and
Paris
to
the
other
courts
of
Europe
;
it
was
read
by
all
men
of
letters
,
and
by
all
men
of
state
,
with
an
avidity
inspired
by
the
celebrity
of
the
author
and
the
magnitude
of
the
subject
;
and
it
produced
an
effect
which
,
in
other
circumstances
would
have
appeared
almost
miraculous
;
especially
when
we
consider
the
intrinsic
character
of
the
work
.
M.
de
Calonne
,
about
the
same
time
,
published
a
book
of
much
more
internal
merit
;
a
book
in
which
falshood
is
clothed
in
a
more
decent
covering
;
and
in
which
there
is
more
energy
and
argument
,
to
excite
the
champions
of
despotism
to
begin
the
work
of
desolation
.
But
Calonne
wrote
and
appeared
in
his
true
character
.
It
was
known
that
he
had
been
a
robber
in
France
,
and
was
now
an
exile
in
England
;
and
,
while
he
herded
with
the
English
robbers
at
St.
James's
,
he
wrote
to
revenge
himself
upon
the
country
whose
justice
he
had
escaped
.
His
writings
,
therefore
,
had
but
little
weight
;
perhaps
as
little
as
Mr.
Burke's
would
have
had
,
if
his
real
object
had
been
known
.
But
this
illustrious
hypocrite
possessed
every
advantage
for
deception
.
He
palmed
himself
upon
the
world
as
a
volunteer
in
the
general
cause
of
philanthropy
.
Giving
himself
up
to
the
frenzy
of
an
unbridled
imagination
,
he
conceives
himself
writing
tragedy
,
without
being
confined
to
the
obvious
laws
of
fiction
;
and
taking
advantage
of
the
recency
of
the
events
,
and
of
the
ignorance
of
those
who
were
to
read
his
rhapsodies
,
he
peoples
France
with
assassins
,
for
the
sake
of
raising
a
hue-and-cry
against
its
peaceable
inhabitants
;
he
paints
ideal
murders
,
that
they
may
be
avenged
by
the
reality
of
a
wide
extended
slaughter
;
he
transforms
the
mildest
and
most
generous
people
in
Europe
into
a
nation
of
monsters
and
atheists
,
"
heaping
mountains
upon
mountains
,
and
waging
war
with
heaven
,
"
that
he
may
interest
the
consciences
of
one
part
of
his
readers
,
and
cloak
the
hypocrisy
of
another
,
to
induce
them
both
to
renounce
the
character
of
men
,
while
they
avenge
the
cause
of
God
.
Such
was
the
first
picture
of
the
French
Revolution
presented
at
once
to
the
eyes
of
all
the
men
who
held
the
reins
of
government
in
the
several
states
of
Europe
;
and
such
was
the
authority
of
the
author
by
whom
it
was
presented
,
that
we
are
not
to
be
astonished
at
the
effect
.
The
emigrant
princes
,
and
the
agents
of
the
court
of
the
Thu–leries
,
who
were
then
besieging
the
anti-chambers
of
ministers
in
every
country
,
found
a
new
source
of
impudence
in
this
extraordinary
work
.
They
found
their
own
invented
fictions
confirmed
in
their
fullest
latitude
,
and
a
rich
variety
of
superadded
falshood
,
of
which
the
most
shameless
sycophant
of
Louis
or
of
Condé
would
hare
blushed
to
have
been
the
author
.
With
this
book
in
their
hands
it
was
easy
to
gain
the
ear
of
men
already
predisposed
to
listen
to
any
project
which
might
rivet
the
chains
of
their
fellow
creatures
.
These
arguments
,
detailed
by
proper
agents
,
induced
some
of
the
principal
sovereigns
of
Europe
to
agree
to
the
treaty
of
Pilnitz
;
then
the
death
of
Leopold
,
as
I
have
stated
in
the
preface
,
unhappily
removed
the
great
obstacle
to
the
execution
of
that
treaty
,
and
the
war
of
Mr.
Burke
was
let
loose
,
with
all
the
horrors
he
intended
to
excite
.
And
what
is
the
language
proper
to
be
used
in
describing
the
character
of
a
man
,
who
,
in
his
situation
,
at
his
time
of
life
,
and
for
a
pension
of
only
fifteen
hundred
pounds
a
year
,
could
sit
down
deliberately
in
his
closet
and
call
upon
the
powers
of
earth
and
hell
to
inflict
such
a
weight
of
misery
on
the
human
race
?
When
we
see
Alexander
depopulating
kingdoms
and
reducing
great
cities
to
ashes
,
we
transport
ourselves
to
the
age
in
which
he
lived
,
when
human
slaughter
was
human
glory
;
and
we
make
some
allowance
for
the
ravings
of
ambition
.
If
we
contemplate
the
frightful
cruelties
of
Cortez
and
Pizarro
,
we
view
their
characters
as
a
composition
of
avarice
and
fanaticism
;
we
see
them
insatiable
of
wealth
,
and
mad
with
the
idea
of
extending
the
knowledge
of
their
religion
.
But
here
is
a
man
who
calls
himself
a
philosopher
,
not
remarkable
for
his
avarice
,
the
delight
and
ornament
of
a
numerous
society
of
valuable
friends
,
respected
by
all
enlightened
men
as
a
friend
of
peace
and
a
preacher
of
humanity
,
living
in
an
age
when
military
madness
has
lost
its
charms
,
and
men
begin
to
unite
in
searching
the
means
of
avoiding
the
horrors
of
war
;
this
man
,
wearied
with
the
happiness
that
surrounds
him
,
and
disgusted
at
the
glory
that
awaits
him
,
renounces
all
his
friends
,
belies
the
doctrines
of
his
former
life
,
bewails
that
the
military
savageness
of
the
fourteenth
century
is
past
away
,
and
,
to
gratify
his
barbarous
wishes
to
call
it
back
,
conjures
up
a
war
,
in
which
at
least
two
millions
of
his
fellow
creatures
must
be
sacrificed
to
his
unaccountable
passion
.
Such
is
the
condition
of
human
nature
,
that
the
greatest
crimes
have
usually
gone
unpunished
.
It
appears
to
me
,
that
history
does
not
furnish
a
greater
one
than
this
of
Mr.
Burke
;
and
yet
all
the
consolation
that
we
can
draw
from
the
detection
,
is
to
leave
the
man
to
his
own
reflections
,
and
expose
his
conduct
to
the
execration
of
posterity
.