iV c •• // ^, ^-t --• ■V'^.-'iAl DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY iAAWiQ^-'C Treasure "Room ( ' a^ I '^ ' ■^ ,;♦. # ^. : ' #. ■ ^ „•=>• €ae Cemf) CDition. 4 LETTER • IRGTvI THE RIGIiT HONOURABLE EDMUND BURK,E A NOBLE LORD. ^-ntfrcD at .^itr.nDncr?'-'v^.^l[" [Price 2s.] ^ 1 La A LETTER "^ ^ FROM THE RIGHT HONOURABLE EDMUND BURKE TO A NOBLE LORD, 1 I ON THK ATTACKS MADE UPON HIM AND HIS PENSION, I IN The Houfe of Lords y i BT 7 HE DUKE OF BEDFORD AND THK EARL OF LAUDERDALE, Early in the prefent Seffions of Parliament. Eontion : PRINTED FOR J. OWEN, NO. l68, PICCADILLY, AND F. AND C. RIVINGTON, NO. 62. ST. PAUl's CHURCH^YARD. 1796. -Ty IIY LORD, I COULD hardly flatter myfelf with the hope, that fo very early in the feafon I fliould have to acknowledge obligations to the Duke of Bedford and to the Earl of Lauderdale. Thefe noble perfons have loft no time in conferring upon me, that fort of honour, which it is alone within their competence, and which it is cer- tainly moft congenial to their nature and their manners to beftow. To be ill fpoken of, in whatever language they fpeak, by the zealots of the new fed: in philofophy and politicks, of which thefe noble perfons think fo charitably, and of v/hich others think fo juftly, to me, is no matter of uneafmefs or furprifc. To have incurred the difpleafare of the Duke of Orleans or the Duke of Bedford, to B fall ( 2 ) fall under the cenfure of Citizen Brilfot or of his friend the Earl of Lauderdale, I ought to confider as proofs, not the leafl fatisfadory, that I have produced fome part of the effed I propofed by, my endeavours. I have laboured hard to earn, what the noble Lords are generous enough to pay. Pcrfonal offence I have given them non^,. The part they take againfl: me is from zeal to the caufe. It is well! It is perfedly well! I have to do homage to their juflice. I have to thank the Bedfords and the Lauderdales for having fo faithfully and fo fully acquitted to- wards me whatever arrear of debt was left un- difcharged by the Prieflleys and t|ie Paines. Some, perhaps, may think them executors in their own wrong: I at lead have nothing to complain of. They have gone beyond the demands of juflice. They have been (a little perhaps beyond their intention) favourable to me. They have been the means of bring- ing out, by their invedives, the handfome things which Lord Grenville has had the goodnefs and condefcenfion to fay in my be- half. Retired as I am from the world, and. from all it's affairs and all it's pleafures, I con- fcfs it does kindle, in my nearly extinguiflied feelings 3 ( 3 ) feelings, a very vivid fatisfaftion to be fo at- tacked and fo. commended. It is foothing to my wounded mirid, to be commended by an able, vigorous, and well informed ftatefman, and at the very momeat when he (lands forth with a manlinefs and refolution, worthy of him- felf and of his caufe, for the prefervation of the perfon and government of our Sovereign, and therein for the fecurity of the laws, the liberties, the morals, and the lives of his people. To be in any fair vray connected with fuch things, is indeed a diiiinclion. No philofophy can make me above-it: no melancholy can deprefs me fo low, as to make me wholly infenfible to fuch an honour. "Why will they not let me remain in obfcu- rity and inaftion ? Are they apprehenfive, that if an atom of me remains, the fe£t has fomething to fear ? Mud I be annihilated, left, like old 'John Zifca*^, my fkin might be made into a drum, to animate Europe to eternal battle, againft a tyranny that threatens to overwhelm all Europe, and all the human race ? My Lord, it is a fabjeft of aweful meditation. Before this of France, the annals of all time B 2 have ( 4 ) have not furninied an inftance of a compleat revolution. That revolution feems to have ex- tended cATn to the conilitution of the mind of man. It has th's of wonderful- in it, that it re- fembles what Lord Verulam fays of the operations of nature : It was perfed, not only in all its ele- ments and principles, but in all i^'s members and it*s organs from the very beginning. The moral fcheme of France furniflies the only pattern ever known, which they who adn::ire will injlantly refemble. It is indeed an inexhauftible reper- tory of one kind of examples. In my wretched condition, though hardly to be clafi'ed with the living, I am not fafe from them. They have tygers to fall upon animated (Irength. They have hyenas to prey upon carcafies. The national menagerie is coilefted by the firft phy- fiologifts of the time ; and it is defective in no defcription of favage nature. They purfue, even fuch as me, into the obfcurefl retreats, and haul. them before their revolutionary tribunals. " Nei- ther fex, nor age — nor the fanfiuary of the tomb is facred to them. They have fo determined a hatred to all privileged orders, that they deny even to the departed, the fad immunities of the grave. They are not wholly without an ob- j^ct. Their turpitude purveys to their malice ; and ( 5 ) . and they iinplumb the dead for bullets to afiaf- (inate the living. If 2II revolutionifts v.cre net proof againfl: all cauiion, I (liouldreconimend it to their confideratlon, that no perfons were ever known in hifloiy, eirher facrcd or profane, to vex the fepulchre, and by their forceries, to call up the prophetic dead, with any other event, than the preditSlion of their own difaftrous fate. — " Leave me, oh leave nie to repofe I*' In one thinsr I can excufe the Duke of Bed- o ford for his attack upon me and my mortuary penfion. lie cannot readily comprehend the tranfadtion he condemns. What I have ob- tained was the fruit of no bargain ; the produc- tion of no intrigue; the refult of no ccmpromife ; the effecl of no folicitation. The firfl: fuggefiion of it never came from me, mediately or imme- diately, to his Msjefly or any of his Mlnifters. It was long known that the inftant my engage- ments would permit it, and before the heaviell: of all calamities had for ever condeir.ned me to obfcurity and forrcw, I had refolved on a total retreat. I had executed that defign. I was entirely out of the way of ferving or of hurting any ftatefman, or any party, when the Minifiers fo generoufly and fo nobly carried into ( 6 ) into effecl the fpontaneous bounty of the Crowrii; Both defcriptions have acted as became them. When I could no longer ferve them, the Mini- fters have confidered my fituation. When I could no longer hurt them, the revolutionifls have trampled on my infirmity. My gratitude, I truft, is equal to the manner in which the be- nefit was conferred. It cailrie to me indeed, at a time of life, and in a flare of mind and body, in which no circumftance of fortune could af- ford me any real pleafiire. But this was no fault in the Royal Donor, or in his Minifters^ who V\^ere pleafed, in acknowledging the merits of an invalid fervant of the publick, to affuage the forrows of a defolate old man. It would ill become me to boaft of any thing. It would as ill become me, thus called upon, to depreciate the value of a long life, fpent with unexampled toil in the fervice of my country. Since the total body of my fervices, on ac- count of the induflry which was fhewn in them, and the fairnefs of my intentions, have ob- tained the acceptance of my Sovereign, it would be abfurd in me to range myfelf on the fide of the Duke of Bedford and the Correfponding Society, or, as far as in me lies, to permit a dif- pute on the rate af which the authority appointed by ( 7 ) by our Conflitution to eflimate fuch things, has been pleafed to fct them. Loofe libels ought to be pafled by in filence and contempt. By me they have been fo al- ways. I knew that as long as 1 remained in piibhck, I fliould live down the calumnies of mah'ce, and the judgments of ignorance. \i 1 happened to be now and then in the wrong, as who is not, hke all other men, I muft bear the eonlequence of my faults and my miftakes. The libels of the prefent day, are juft of the fame ll.ufF as the libels of the pafl. But they derive an importance from the rank of the per- fons they come from, and the gravity of the place where they were uttered. In fome way or other I ought to take fome notice of them. To affert myfelf thus traduced is not vanity or arro- gance. It is a demand of juflice; it is a demon- ftration of gratitude. If I am unworthy, the Miniflers are worfe than prodigal. On that hy- pothefis, I perfeaiy agree with the Duke of Bed- ford. For whatever I have been (I am now no more) I put myfelf on my country. I ought to be allowed a reafonable freedom, becaufe I fland upon my deliverance j and no culprit ought to plead plead in irons. Even in the utmoft latitude of defenfive liberty, 1 wiih to preferve all pofTible dtcoruni. Whatever it may be in the eyes of thefe noble perfons themfelves, to me, their fituation calls for the mofi: profound refpecl. If I fliouid happen to trefpafs a little, which I trufl I iliall not, let it ahvays be fuppofed, that a con- fufion of characliers may produce miflakes ; that in the mafqucrades of the grand carnival of our 2ge, Vv'himfical adventures happen ; odd things are . faid and pafs off. If I Tnould fail a fingle point in the high refpecl I c>ve to thofs illudrious perfons, I cannot be fup- pofed to mean the Duke of Bedford and the Earl of Lauderdale of the Houfe of Peers, but the Duke of Bedford and the Earl of Lauder- dale of Palace Yard j — The Dukes and Earls of Brentford. There they are on the pavement ; there they feem to come nearer to my humble level ; and, virtually at le:.fl:, to have waved their high privilege. Making this proteflation, 1 refufe all re- volutionary tribunalsy where men have been put to death for no other reafon, than that they had obtained favours from the Crovi^n. I claim, not the letter, but the fpirit of the old Englifh Ia.\v, that is, to be tried by my psers. I dechne his (9 ) his Grace's jurifdiclion as a judge. I challenge the Duke of Bedford as a juror to pafs upon the value of ray fervices. Wliatever his natural pa; ts may be, I cannot recognize in his few and idle years, the competence to judge of my long and laborious life. If I can help it, he fhall not be on the inqueft of my quantum rneruit. Poor rich man I He can hardly know any thing of publick induflry in it's exertions, or can eftimate it's com- penfations when it's work is done. I have no doubt of his Grace's readinefs in all the calcula- tions of vulgar arithmetick ; but I ftirewdly fuf- ped, that he is very little ftudied in the theory of moral proportions ; and has never learned the Rule of Three in the arithmetick of policy and ftate. His Grace thinks I have obtained too much. I anfwer, that my exertions, whatever they have been, were fuch as -no hopes of pecuniary reward could poflibly excite ; and no pecu- niary coinpenfation can pofiibly reward them. Between money and fuch fervices, if done by abler men than I am, there is no common prin- ciple of comparifon : they are quantities incom- menfarable. Money is made for the comfort and convenience of animal life. It cannot be a re- ward for what, mere animal Hfe mufi: indeed fuf- c , tain. tain, but never can infpire. With fubmiflion to his Grace, I have not had more than fuffi- cient. As to any noble ufe, I trufi: 1 knov/ how to employ, as well as he, a much greater iortune than he poffeiTes. In a more cor.fined applica- tion, I certainly, ftand in need of every kind of relief and eafement much more than he does. When 1 fay I have not received m.ore than I de- ferve, is this the language I hold to Majeily ? No I Far, very far, from it I Before that prefence, I claim no merit at all. Every thing towards me is favour, and bounty. One flyle to a gracious benefador ; another to a proud and infulting foe. His Grace is pleafed to aggravate my guilt, by charging my acceptance of his Majefty's grant as a departure from my ideas, and the fpirit of my conducl with regard to oecono- rny. If it be. my ideas of ceconomy were falfe and ill founded. But they are the Duke of Bedford's ideas of oeconomy I have contradided, and not my own. If he means to allude to cer- tain bills brought in by me on a mefiage from the throne in 1782, 1 tell him, that there is no- thing in my ccnducl that can contradict either the letter or the fpirit of thofe ad:s. — Does he mean the pay-ofEce a■ • ■ upon which reformation is defirl, a.noS^ tainly known beforehand Re4n, changeinthefubftancetin ;e"'"°'" dification of the oW, ^\ ! f"'"""'' "'°- of a remedy to th^ ' • "'^"''^ ^PP'''^="''°" -..a::;i/Lt:of:nri;rr"S" ^-^ this. In effed: I f^iM- k . •'avefaide,fewhere:'i;"t'nn':.:':hi::/::V' '00 often repeated ; line upon line : pre enru„ Precept; until it comes into the cu en^' "7 proverb, To innovate is not to rcfir^l °^ I revolutionifts complained of L-v thf" refufed to reform any thing; ^.e-fe'tn" fm, no. nothing at ail L W ^t , eq-nces are ../... us,-not in rimotel^o;"" no. ,n future prognofiication : thev JeT^ ' «Mheyareuponus. They ftaiT,:;^ fecurityj fccurlty J they menace private enjoyment. They dwarf the growth of the young ; they break the qmot of the old. If we travel, they flop our v/ay. They infell us in town ; they purfue us to the country. Our buCnefs is interrupted- our repofe is troubled; our pleafures are f?d^ dened ; our very ftudies are poifoned a-nd per- verted, and knowledge is rendered worfe than ignorance, by the enormous evils of this dread fal innovation. The -revolution harpies of France, fprung from night and hell, or from that chaotick anarchy, v.hich generates equivocally " ad monftrous, all prodigious things," cuckoo hKe, adulteroufly lay their eggs, and brood over, and hatch them in theneft of every neirh bouring. State. Thefe obfcene harpies, who derk themfelves, m I know not what divine attributes but who in reality are foul and ravenous bird ' oi prey (both mothers and daughters) flutter ov^er onr heads, and foufe down upon our tables, and leave nothing unreiit, unrifled un ravaged or unpollmed with th, fJn.e of their filthy ojtal*. ^ P^n.s & .ru Deun. Stygiis icCc cxtulit undi. 1"^'' ^'"'"^'■""^ --itu^> fediffima veneris Proluv.es, unc.que n.anus, .^ p,irij, Tu.pcr <-'ra fan::e— — * Here ( 22 ) If his Grace can contemplate the refult of this compleat innovation, or, as feme friends of his will call it reform^ in the whole body of it's folidity and compound mafs, at which, as Ham- let fays, the face of Heaven glows Math horrour and indignation, and which, in truth, makes every reflecting mind, and every feeling heart, perfectly thought-fick, without a tho^-ough ab- horrence of every thing they fay, and every thing they do, I am amazed at the morbid flrength, or the natural infirmity of his mind. It was then not my love, but my hatred to innovation, that produced my Plan of Reform. Without troubling myfeif with the exaclnefs of the logical diagram, I confidered them as things fubflantially oppofite. It was to prevent that evil, that I propofed the meafures, which his Grace is pleafed, and I am not forry he is pleaf- ed, to recal to my recoUedion. I had (what Here the Poet breaks the line, becaiife he (and that He is Virgil) had not verfe or hmguage to deforibe th:it rnonfter even as he had conceived her. Had he lived lo our time, he would have been more overpowered v/ith the reality than he was with the imagination. Virgil only knew the horror of the times before him- Had he lived to fee the Revoiiuionifts and Conftitutionalifts of France, he would have had more horrid and difgufting features of his harpies to defcribe, and more frequent failures in the attempt to defcribe them. I hope ( ^3 ) I hope that Noble Duke will remember in all his operations) a State to preferve, as well as a. State to reform. I had a people to gratify, but not to iti flame, or to miflead. I do not claim hall tLe credit for what I did, as for what I prevented from being done. In that fituation of the publick mind, I did not undertake, as was then propofed, to new model the Houfe of Commons or the Houfe of Lords ; or to change, the authority under which any officer of the crown aded, who was fufFered at all to exift. Crown, Lords, Commons, judicial fyftem, fyftem of adminiftration, exifted as they had exlfted before ; and in the mode and manner in which they had always exifted. My meafures were, what I then truly ftated them to the Houfe to be, in their intent, healing and medi- atorial. A complaint was made of too much influence in the Houfe of Commons ; I re- duced it in both Houfes ; and I gave my reafons article by article for every reduction, and (hewed why 1 thought it fafe for the fervice of the State. 1 heaved the lead every inch of way I made. A difpofition to ex- pence was complained of; to that I op- pofed, not mere retrenchment, but a fyftem of oeconomy, which would make a random ex- pence without plan or forefight, in future not eafily ( 24 ) eafily praclicable. I proceeded upon principles <)£ refearch to put me in pcijefiion of my mat- ter; on principles of method to regulate it ; and on principles in the human mind and in civil affairs to fecure and perpetuate the operation. I conceived nothing arbitrarily ; nor propofed any thing to be done by the will and pieafure of others, or my own; but by reafon, and by reafon only. I have ever abhorred, fmce the firit dawn of my underftanding to this it's obfcure twi- light, all the Operations of opinion, fancy, in- clination, and will, in the affairs of Govern- ment, where only a fovereign reafon, paramount to all forms of legiflation and adminiftration, fhould dic^te. Government is made for the very purpofe of oppofmg that reafon to will and to caprice, in the reformers or in the reformed, in the governors or in the governed, in Kings, in Senates, or in People. On a careful review, therefore, and analyfisof all the component parts of the Civil Lift,- and on weighiag them each againft other, in order to make as much. as poffible, all of them a fub- jcft of eftimate, (the foundation and corner- Itone of all regular provident oeconomy), it ap- peared to me evident, that this was impracti- ciible, v^'hil{l that part, ca%d the PenfionvLiff, was ( ^5 ) was totally dlfcretionary In it's amount. For this reafon, and for this only, I propofcd to re- duce it, both in it's grofs quantity, and in it's larger individual proportions, to a certainty : left, if it were left without a_g-^;2^r<7/liinir, it might eat up the Civil Lift fervice ; if fullered to be granted in portionstoo greatfor the fund, it might defeat it's own end; and by unlimited allowances to fome, it might difable the Crown in means of providing for others. The Penfion Lift was to be kept as a facred fund ; but it could not be kept as a conftant open fund, fufEcient for growing demands, if fome demands could wholly devour it. The tenour of the Acl will fliew that it re- garded the Civil Lift onij^ the redudion of which to fome fort of eftimate was my great objed. No other of the Crown funds did I meddle with, becaufe they had not the fame rela- tions. This of the four and a half per cents does his Grace imagine had efcaped me, or had efcaped all the men of bufmefs, who aded with me in thofe regulations I 1 knew that fuch a fund exifted, and that penfions had been always granted on it, before his Grace was born. This fund was full in my eye. It was full in the eyes of thofe who worked with me. It was left on principle. On principle I did what wtiS then F. done ; ( 26 ) done ; and on principle what was left undone was omitted. I did not dare to rob the nation of all funds to reward merit. If I preiTed this point too clofe, I acted contrary to the avowed principles on which I went. Gentlemen are very fond of quoting me ; but if any one thinks it worth his while to know the rules that guided me in my plan of reform, he will read my printed fpeech on that fubjed ; at lead what is contained from page 230 to page 241 in the fecond Volume of the collection which a friend has given himfelf the trouble to make of my publications. Be this as ir may, thefe two Bills (though atchieved with the greatefl labour, ' and management of every fort, both within and without the Houfe) were only a part, and but a fmallpart, of a very large fyftem, comprehending all the obje£ls I Rated in opening my propofition, and indeed many more, which I juft hinted at in miy Speech to the Electors of Briilol, when I was put out of that reprefentation. All thefe, in fome ftate or other of forv/ardnefs, 1 have long had by m^e. But do I juRify his Majefly's grace on thefe grounds ? I think them the lead: of my fervice I The time gave them an occafional value : What I have done in the way of political oeco- nomy was far from confined to this body of meafures. i. 27 ) iiieafares. I did not come into Parliament to con my leiron. I had earned my penfion before I fet my foot in St. Stephen's Chapel. I was prepared and difciplined to this political war- fare. The firft leflbn I fiit in Parliament, I found it necefl'ary to analyze the whole com- mercial, financial, conftitutional and foreign in- terefts of Great Britain and ij:'s Empire. A great deal was then done ; and more, far more would have been done, if more had been per- mitted by events. Then in the vigour of my manhood, my conflitution funk under my la- bour. Had I then died, (and I feemed to my- felf very near death), 1 had then earned for thofe who belonged to me, more than the Duke of Bedford's ideasof fervice are of power to eilimate. But in truth, thefe fervices I am called to ac- count for, are not thofe on which I value myfelf the moR'. If I were to call for a reward (v/hich I have never done) it (hould be for thofe in which for fourteen years, without intermilTion, I ihewed the.mofl induftry, and had the leafl fuc- cefs ; I mean in the affairs of India They are thofe on which I value myfelf the moft ; mod for the i importance ; moil for the labour ; moft for the judgment ; moll for conftancy and j3erfeverance in the purfuit. Others may value E 2 thei» ( 2'5 ) them moft for the intention. In that, furely, they are not raiftaken. Does his Grace think, that they who ad- Tifed the Crown to make my retreat eafy, con- fidered me only as an oeconomift ? That, well tmderflood, however, is a good deal. If I had not deemed it of fome value, I fhould not have made political osconomy an objecb of my humble ftudies, from my very early youth to near the end of my fervice in parliament, even before, (at lead to any knowledge of mine), it had employed the thoughts of fpeculative men in other parts of Europe. At that time, it was ii'iW in it's infancy in England, where, in the lafl century, it had it's origin. Gre-i:::1 ';.^^^tmM:jt ■miig^M!S^^Mjm: