•• 
 
 i 
 
 k 
 
 / 
 
 
 W 
 
 V 
 
 
 iX. 
 
 DUKE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 Treasure 7(gom 
 
 / 
 
 
A ,U^3 uUa^ '/*&« '• ^ 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2011 with funding from 
 Duke University Libraries 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/soberreflectionsOOthel 
 

 SOBER REFLECTIONS 
 
 ON THE 
 
 SEDITIOUS AND INFLAMMATORY 
 
 LETTER 
 
 OF 
 
 THE RIGHT HON. EDMUND BURKE, 
 
 TO 
 
 A NOBLE LORD. 
 
 MESSED TO THE SERXOUSCO.VSIDEKA 
 
 FELLOir CITIZENS 
 
 TIO>J OF HIS 
 
 BY JOHN THELWALL. 
 
 "Ne« Angrrrush , d _ h . seyeson 
 *" ^ ht ""^ own his secret stings." 
 
 LONDON- 
 
 NOSTER.ROU", 
 
 17#6. 
 
A S the following pages are intended, in fome 
 - 1 - fort, as a reply to the inflammatory mifre- 
 prefentations and incongruous principles of a 
 recent pamphlet, from the elegant and abufive 
 pen of Mr. Burke, it might have been expeaed, 
 perhaps, that I mould have followed the example 
 of my antagonift, by throwing my obfervations 
 into the form of a letter, and addrefling it either 
 to fome great perfonage, or to that antagonift 
 himfelf. But it has long been a principle with 
 me, that, as far as it is practicable, at leaft, in 
 the Hate of fociety in which we live, our open 
 profeffion and our real object fhould always be 
 the fame; and I have been frequently difpofed 
 to fufpea that all colourable pretences, all habits 
 of fubterfuge, even in circumftances of the moft 
 apparent indifference, have a tendency to weaken 
 the moral feelings, and produce a bias of mind 
 eminently unfavourable to reaitude of judgment, 
 and that enthufiaftic attachment to the caufe of 
 truth, which is, in reality, the nobleft attribute 
 of a cultivated undemanding. There is a manly 
 
 B and 
 
( 2 ) 
 
 and independent energy of mind, encouraged by 
 a fcrupulous adherence, not only to the efence, but 
 even to the Jhews and forms of fmcerity, which a 
 friend of liberty ought to be particularly zealous 
 to prefervc. I therefore addrefs thefe animadver- 
 fions on one of the moft extraordinary pamphlets 
 that ever were publifhed, openly and avowedly 
 to my fellow citizens, for whofe advantage they 
 are principally intended ; and from whom, alone, 
 I have the vanity to expert any confiderable por- 
 tion of attention : for I have not the fortune (good 
 or bad— as " the zealots of the old feet in philo- 
 " fophy and politics*," may choofe to confider it) 
 to be either the penfioned dependant, friend, or 
 correfpondant of any* noble lord, with whofe ho- 
 nours I might emblazon my title-page ; and, as 
 for Mr. Burke himfelf, the diftemper of his mind 
 is fo evident in every thing which of late years 
 he has either faid or written, that it is impouible 
 to expeft from him the fmalleft degree of candid 
 attention to the arguments of one whom, upon 
 no better evidence than the fuggeftions of his 
 own furious prejudices, he ftigmatifes as " a 
 66 wicked pander to avarice and ambition t-" 
 The hydrophobia of alarm rages too fiercely in 
 his mind, to fuffer him to wet his lips with the 
 fober ftream of reafon, or turn to the falutary 
 
 * Letter, &c. p. i. Ibid, p. 47- 
 
 food 
 
( 3 ) 
 
 food of tmpartial invertigation. All i s ra „ e and 
 foam and headlong precipitancy; and the indi- 
 v 1 duannu ft bcas,nadashi m fe, fw ,, ocx , v , s 
 any thing but to be torn by his invented to 
 from an attempt to ftop him in bis career, or' 
 tumh lm to the right, 6r to the left, to examine 
 the grounds over which he is fo furioufly run- 
 
 Let me, however, be underftood: I apply this 
 metaphor not in the bitternefs of malevolen 
 but m the kin^eft of pity, i would not wi^ 
 7-even ,f my feeble lance were capable of pierc- 
 es the feven-fold ftield of literary and arifto 
 cra„c pnde by which myoponent is defended _ 
 I won d not wantonly tear with frefh wounds 
 a brcaft already bleeding with the keeneu an<mim 
 of paternal affliaion. n 
 
 Mr. Burke does not, perhaps, expea fo much 
 candour and moderation from one whofe 2 
 cpleaare diametrically oppofite to his own a"d 
 who does not even ihrink from the imputlt G11 
 of bem? a Demormt •, *t l- "putation 
 
 Tfor it L n u L 7 h "' ° r a Sam Cul °<": 
 
 or ,t s too much the habit with the violent of 
 
 a" pnrt,es, to fuppofe that there can be nomine 
 -ous or ,bera, in the charaaer of ^ytl'n 
 
 vc .t , PP °' ,te Pnna 'P ,e to themfclves-1 
 Kt when I p eru fe the pathetic paffa^e in th I 
 bcantdul, but mifchievous letter 7$ L I 
 P^udice may not ^, that i^S 
 
 wjtn 
 
( 4 ) 
 with the affliaions of an enemy ; even when, 
 from that perverfion, from which the fineft under- 
 ftandings are not exempt, he happens, according 
 to my judgement, to be the enemy, alfo, of the 
 human race. In one refpea, alfo, I have ever 
 been ambitious of emulating the chivalrous fpirtt 
 of our ancient heroes. I can venerate the talents 
 and enthufiafm employed againft my own caufe; 
 and (in the more liberal acceptation of the phrafe) 
 as Shakefpere expreffes it— 
 
 « Envy their great defervings and high merits, 
 « Becaufe they are not of our determination, 
 « But ftand againft us as an enemy." 
 
 I fhould not, therefore, exult if Mr. Barkis 
 "feelings" were, in reality, what he calls them, 
 « nearly extinguifhed* ;" I do not exult to find 
 them, on the contrary, the moft irritable that ever 
 burned (like a hot-ach) under the froft of age: 
 far lefs do I exult in thofe incongruities of mind, 
 which exhibit reafon in its dotage, while the 
 imagination is ftill rioting in all the vigour and 
 luxuriancy of youth. I bow with veneration to 
 the -io-antic powers of his unwearied intellect ; 
 I ,aze with rapture upon the fplendid effufions 
 of his inexhauftible fancy 3 and I have not the 
 favage ignorance to fuppofe that if I had the will, 
 
 * Letter, &c. p. 2. 
 
 or 
 
( 5 ) 
 
 or the power, to deftroy his reputation, I could 
 transfer his genius to myfelf, or plant his honours 
 upon my own brow. Nor, indeed, when the fub- 
 je£t. is weighed in the important fcale of effects 
 and confequences, have the friends of liberty any 
 ferious caufe to lament his exertions. The pro- 
 vocation of political difcuffion is the grand defi- 
 deratum for political improvement : and, fo far 
 is the gall of perfonal animofity from my pen, 
 that, in the fervent fincerity of foul, I can ex- 
 claim — " Far, far may that period be removed, 
 when fate or caprice iTiall inflict upon him either 
 the filence of death, or the death of filence!" 
 
 I could wifh, indeed, that a mind fo rich, fo 
 cultivated, fo powerful, were upon the fide of 
 truth : but if he will but write, take whatever 
 fide he will, I am fure that truth will be derived 
 from his labours : for I defy Mr. Burke, or any 
 other individual of penetrating and energetic 
 mind, under what unfortunate delufion foever he 
 may labour, to publifh a pamphlet of eighty 
 pages, without bringing forward fome important 
 obfervations, which, on account of their firm 
 foundation in juftice, will remain, while thofe 
 which are falfe will be expofed and rejected by 
 the difcufiion which fuch publications cannot fail 
 of producing. Nay, the very abfurdities and fo- 
 phifms of a vigorous mind are fubfervient to juft 
 conclufion: for, from the energy with which 
 
 they 
 
( 6 ) 
 
 they are exprefled, they take faft hold upon 
 the imagination, and compell the reflecting reader 
 to give them that repeated revifion which, 
 unlefs the mind is very confiderably warped by 
 the ftrong bias of interefted prejudice, cannot fail 
 of conducting the enquirer to principles of liberty 
 and juflice. 
 
 In this point of view, the caufe of liberty has 
 eflential obligations to the pen of Mr. Burke. He 
 has written books which have converted fuch of 
 his dijinterejied readers, as were in the habit of 
 thinking tor themfelves, from the caufe he endea- 
 voured to uphold, to that which it was his object 
 to overthrow ; he has provoked anfwers, which, 
 extending the boundaries of fcience beyond the 
 narrow pale of opulence, have carried the inva- 
 luable difcuffion of political principles and civil 
 rights to the fhopboard of the artificer, and the 
 cottage of the laborious hufbandman ; and his 
 ungovernable phrenzy has hurried him into ex- 
 JireJJicns and epithets fo repugnant to every princi- 
 ple of juitice and humanity*, and fo revoltingly 
 difgufting to the common fympathies of nature, 
 as could not fail of producing a very general con- 
 viction, I will not fay, as fome have faid, of the 
 rottennefs of his heart (for who fhall judge of the 
 motives of man, or fet bounds to the omnipotency 
 
 * Reflection?, &c. 
 
 of 
 
( 7 ) 
 of felf-delufion !) but of the weakncfs and injuftice 
 of that caufe which could reduce fuch talents to 
 the neceffity of appealing to weapons fo grofs 
 and fo unmanly. 
 
 In this laft fpecies of warfare the fury of my 
 prefent antagonift has been at leaf! fufficientiy 
 feconded by the metaphyseal phrenzy of his friend 
 Mr. Windham. Indeed, if this 'gentleman had 
 been hired by the Jacobins of France to difgujl all 
 ranks of people (placemen, penfioners, and depend- 
 ants alone excepted) with the laws, government, 
 and conjlitution of this country, he could not have' 
 proceeded to more wanton infults upon their 
 feelings. To fay nothing of his quotation, and 
 direa application of that line from Shakefpere, 
 
 " If Richard?* fit to live, let Richmond fall: 
 
 Which, if it meant any thing, was referring the 
 queftion to this bloody arbitrament-*//^ theft 
 reformers ought to die by the hands of government, or 
 the governing party by the hands of the reformers; 
 —what mail we fay to " acquitted felons,'' 
 " killed off," and a variety of other fentences, of 
 whofe « vitality" this fubtile, MachievelianVe- 
 cretary (terrified by the lingering echo of his own 
 frenzy) has fo pathetically complained? It is 
 difficult to conceive how human nature could 
 become callous enough to give utterance to thefe 
 and other expreffions, ftill more inhuman, of 
 which I (hall have occafion to take notice: 
 
 But 
 
' ( 8 ) 
 
 but Mr. Burke, in the very pamphlet I am 
 anfwering, furnifhes us, according to his concep- 
 tion, at lead, with a fufhcient explanation. 
 " Nothing can be conceived," fays he, " more 
 " hard than the heart of a thorough-bred meta- 
 " phyfician. It comes nearer to the cold malig- 
 " nity of a wicked fpirit, than to the frailty and 
 " paffion of a man. It is like that of the prin- 
 " ciple of evil himfelf, incorporeal, pure, un- 
 44 mixed, dephlegmated, defecated evil*." 
 
 In what particular country Mr. Burke has met 
 with thofe philofophers and metaphyficians, from 
 whofe example he has drawn this definition, I 
 {hall enquire more particularly hereafter; and on 
 the validitv of his arguments, in this refpecl, I 
 may perhaps be admitted to decide with the 
 o-reater impartiality, from having the misfortune 
 (for fuch I believe it is, to be deficient in any 
 branch of knowledge) of being liable to no part 
 of that rancorous animofity, with which he is 
 fometimes difpofed to regard both the fcience and 
 the profellors of metaphyfics. In the mean time, 
 that I may not appear to prejudge the queftion, 
 permit me to declare, that, if it can be (hewn 
 that thefe fubtile difquifitions and abftracl en- 
 quiries are neceffarily hoftile to the principles and 
 practice of humanity, I (hall hold myfelf in readi- 
 
 * Letter, &c. p. 61. 
 
 nefs 
 
( 9 ) 
 
 nefs to reject with equal abhorrence " the philo- 
 " fophy that would eradicate the belt feelings of 
 " the heart," and that fyftem of private attach- 
 ment and obligation, which, preferring a part to 
 the whole, would facrifice to individual gratitude 
 the interefts and happinefs of mankind ! 
 
 But the moll powerful of thofe champions, for 
 whofe efforts in behalf of liberty we are indebted 
 to the ungovernable fury of Mr. Burke's attacks, 
 have not been found either among the metaphy- 
 ficians, or the ferocious violators of the principles 
 of humanity. The ftrong, rude, fometimes inco- 
 herent, but always gigantic mind of: Thomas 
 Paine, had been neither fafliioned nor debauched 
 by the fubtilties nor the fophiftries of metaphy- 
 fics; and he has approved, at the peril of his 
 life, the fettled averfion of his foul, not only to 
 the maffacres, tumultuary or legal, which have 
 difgraced the French Revolution, but even to that 
 " penal retrofpect" which rendered the faith- 
 lefs and perjured Louis a viclim to the trea- 
 cherous duplicity with which he confpired for 
 the deftru£tion of his people. And as for 
 thofe other diftinguifhed antagonifts of Mr. 
 Burke, whom this country may more exclufively 
 challenge as her own; they are men whofe focial 
 virtues have either never yet been queftioned, 
 or being queftioned, have been put to the-ordeal, 
 
 C and 
 
( 1° ) 
 
 and patted, like pure gold, through the fire, 
 undiminiihed either in weight or luftre. 
 
 The energy of fome of the moll celebrated of 
 thefe has, it is true, been relaxed awhile, by the 
 enervating influence of party attachment; while 
 others, infecled by the temporary mania of alarm, 
 have appeared, at leaft, to defert the facred 
 caufe : but let the tools and advocates of corrup- 
 tion beware; for if tyranny mould advance with 
 too audacious a ftride — if thofe who have already 
 provoked fo much difcuiTion, encouraged by a 
 temporary fupinenefs, mould infult too out- 
 rageoufly the feelings and underftandings of the 
 nation, thefe champions may be provoked to 
 refume their neglecled arms, or others, ftill 
 more irrefiftible, may ftep forward to fupply 
 their place. The manly fpirit of Britain is not 
 dead but fleepeth. Sampfon in the lap of 
 Dalila (the Dalila of dependance and corruption!) 
 flumbers it is true, amidft his bonds: but he 
 is not yet morn of his ft rength j nor is the myftic 
 fecret yet difcovered: and mould he chance but 
 to awaken from his lethargy, the new cords may 
 be burft afunder, and the Philijlines be compelled 
 to fly! 
 
 Behold then the unwearied fervices of Edmund 
 Burke, whom corruption has penfioned for its 
 own deftru&ion ! who defends the privileged 
 
 orders 
 
( M ) 
 
 orders by overwhelming their privileges with 
 contemptuous ridicule! and protects the inviola- 
 bility of places and penfions, by tearing afunder 
 the venerable veil of prescription, and under- 
 mining the foundations of hereditary property! 
 
 But what reafon foever the noble perfonages 
 attacked in this letter may have to hurl back 
 the charge upon their aflailant, and accufe the 
 minijlerial faEtion of being " executors in their 
 " own wrong*," the friends of popular enquiry 
 " have nothing to complain of." — " It is well! 
 " it is perfectly well! We have to do homage f 
 " to" his zeal in the caufe of political invefti- 
 gation. 
 
 The difcuffion provoked by his inconfiderate 
 " Reflections" was nearly exhauited; the nine 
 days wonder of the State Trials had fubfided; 
 political perfecution had become familiar, and, 
 like the daily bread of a land in plenty, was 
 taken as matter of courfe, and digefted without 
 comment or obfervation; and whatever fpirit or 
 energy had hitherto remained among the people, 
 feemed to have evaporated in the ftruggle pro- 
 voked by Mr. Pitt's and Lord Grenvi/Ie's bills, 
 and to have left them, in this refpecl, like the 
 fallen angels, after the toils of unfuccefsful right, 
 repofing in the oblivious pool, equally forgetful 
 
 * Letter, &c. p. z. f Ibid 
 
 C 2 Of 
 
( iz ) 
 
 of the difgrace they had experienced, and of the 
 energies by which it might be retrieved. Mr. 
 Burke, however, knew that this was not the ftate 
 in which it was their duty, or their intereft to re- 
 main; and he determined, accordingly, to awaken 
 them from their lethargy. He feized, therefore, 
 again the trump of political controverfy — 
 >" With a withering look, 
 
 " The war-denouncing trumpet took, 
 " And blew a blaft fo loud and dread, 
 '* JVere ne 'er prophetic founds fo full of ivoe ! 
 " And ever and anon he beat 
 " The doubling drum with furious heat*." 
 
 Such a peal, at fuch a time was certainly 
 of all things molt defirable. No other circum- 
 ftance could, perhaps, fo foon, and fo effectually, 
 have revived the energies of popular exertion, or 
 have diffipated fo effectually the lazy mills of 
 torpor and defpondency which hung on the 
 fickening ear of Britilh virtue, and threatened it 
 with eternal blight: fo true is it that thofe advan- 
 tages which the ardour of friendfhip labours to 
 produce in vain, are frequently conferred by the 
 over-active zeal of our bitterefr. enemies. 
 
 But it will be faid, if fuch is my exultation at 
 the appearance of this letter, why have I called it a 
 "mifchievous pamphlet?" To this I anfwer, that 
 the advantages to be expected from this letter 
 
 * Collins. 
 
 are 
 
( 13 ) 
 
 are confequential — certainly not intended; but 
 that the mifchief is in the thing itfelf. Mifchief 
 and good are merely relative terms; for nothing 
 is exclufively productive cither of the one or the 
 other: and with refpeft to intellectual, or literary 
 exertions, the balance is always eventually, i 
 believe, favourable to the happinefs of mankind. 
 In fhort, it feems to be paft the time, in this part 
 of Europe at lead, when it is in the power of any 
 book to be productive of ultimate mifchief. 
 Mankind now read too many books to be perma- 
 nently injured by any. Whatever mifchief is to 
 be apprehended, mud be rather from the Jlagnation- 
 than the nature of their enquiries: and, perhaps, the 
 bell advice that can be given them, is to read every 
 thing that comes in their way, from a Grub-flreet 
 ballad to a Royal proclamation. There are, 
 however, fome publications which, abflractedly 
 conndered, and independant of thofe anfwers 
 likely to be produced in a bufy, literary, difpu- 
 tatious age, like the prefent, muft be confidered 
 as moll pernicious in their tendency: and fuch, 
 above all that ever fell under my cognizance, 
 is " A Letter from the Right Honourable Edmund 
 " Burke to a Noble Lord.'" 
 
 So rafli — fo intemperate — fo imprudent — I 
 cannot help adding, fo unprincipled an attack upon 
 the peaceful fecurity of all property, never has 
 been made, I believe, before, lince England had 
 
 a language 
 
( >4 ) 
 
 a language in which that attack could be con- 
 veyed. Sir Thomas Moore, it is true, has vifited 
 the clofets of fpeculative men with the fafcinat- 
 ing picture of a fociety in which inceffant toil 
 is not the portion of any man, and every thing is 
 enjoyed in common : But there is nothing in the 
 fe Eutopia" that is irritating or inflammatory ; no- 
 thing that is calculated to hurry the uncultivated 
 mind into rafli conclufions, or (hake the founda- 
 tions of fociety with fudden convulfion. Thomas 
 Paine, alfo, in the fecond part of his " Rights of 
 Man," projected, what Servius Tullins partly exe- 
 cuted in ancient Rome, a fcheme of progreffive 
 taxation, by which the towering pride of wealth 
 might be humbled and reftrained, and the bur- 
 thens of government be fhifted from the poor 
 man's fhoulders : And Licinius, and the much cele- 
 brated, and much flandered, Gracchi laboured hard 
 for the eftablifliment of thofe Agrarian laws which 
 conftituted an important article in the original 
 compact of the Roman government, and muft be 
 regarded as among the conjiitutional rights of that 
 nation. But for Mr. Burke, alone, of all the de- 
 mogogues I ever read or heard of, was referved 
 the honourable diftinction of aflailing, with popular 
 fury, the very exigence of all property ; ftirring 
 up the paffions of a diftrefled and irritated peo- 
 ple, by reprefenting the " overgrown" fortunes 
 of the nobility as " oppreffing the induftry of 
 
 ' c humble 
 
( '5 ) 
 
 " humble men *," " trampling on the mediocri- 
 " ty of humble and laborious individuals f" and 
 the like. 
 
 In fliort, Mr. Burke is the nrft eomplete leveller 
 I have met with : the only man who has had the 
 audacity, in direct, and popular language, addreff- 
 ed at once to the perceptions and paffions of 
 mankind at large, to reprefent all wealth — all 
 territorial poffeffion, as plunder and ufurpation 
 — as the fruit of blood, of treachery, of profcrip- 
 tion ! — as being obtained by " the murder of 
 " innocent perfons \" — " from the aggregate 
 " and confolidated funds of judgments iniquitoufly 
 " legal! and from " poffeffions voluntarily furrendered 
 " by the lawful proprietors with the gibbet at their 
 " door | ;" nay, to complete the climax, as hav- 
 ing been augmented (as fome fortunes are at this 
 very day augmenting! ) by " bringing poverty, 
 " wretchednefs, and depopulation on the coun- 
 " try§," and fwelled by confifcations produced 
 " by inftigating a tyrant to injuftice, to provoke 
 " a people to rebellion §." 
 
 I do not ftand forward as the champion of pre- 
 fcriptive rights, nor wield the fword of reafon 
 for the perpetuity of ancient prejudices, or the 
 vindication of hereditary honours. I am more 
 
 * Letter p. 33. f Ibid. 39. % Ibid. p. 42. § Ibid. p. 44. 
 and p. 48. 
 
 felicitous 
 
( 16 ) 
 
 folicitoLis about the living than the dead : more 
 anxious for the happinefs of poilerity than the 
 reputation of long buried anceftors. I leave there- 
 fore to the avowed advocates of the illuftrious 
 and the great, the eafy talk of repelling a confi- 
 derable part, at leaft, of that outrageous obloquy 
 which, though directed ag-ainft a particular family,, 
 does in reality, more or lefs, befpatter the whole 
 body of the nobility and great proprietors of the 
 land. But, if fuch were the real foundations of 
 property — if fuch were indeed the fluff of which 
 all eftate, and wealth, and grandeur were com- 
 pofed, what good and coniiderate man — what 
 friend to the peace and order of fociety — to the 
 fweet fleep of fecurity, and the humane emotions 
 of the heart, would have laid bare thofe founda- 
 tions with fo rude a ftroke ? 
 
 There are even fome truths of the utmoft im- 
 portance to the improvement and happinefs of 
 fociety, which the true philofopher, though he 
 w T ill not fupprefs, will unfold with a tender and 
 a trembling hand. He will proceed with a cau- 
 tion almoft bordering on referve ; and will ac- 
 company every advance towards the requifite 
 developement with the moil folicitous exposition 
 of every appendage and confequence of the re- 
 fpective parts of his docirine ; left by pouring 
 acceptable truths too fuddenly on the popular 
 eye, inftead of falutary light he fhould produce 
 
 blindnefs 
 
( »7 ) 
 
 blindncfs and frenzy! and from premifes the 
 moft juft, plunge into conclufions of the moft 
 deftru&ive nature. Sueh in particular are many 
 of the fpeculations which relate to the fubjecl of 
 property. Thefe are indeed of fo delicate a 
 nature— the abufes relating to them are fo clofely 
 interwoven with the very texture of fociety — and 
 the principles upon which they ftand are fo 
 liable to mifapprehenfion and abufe, that it is 
 almoft doubtful whether mankind is yet fuffi- 
 ciently enlightened and humanized for the in- 
 veftigation, and whether the fubject had not 
 been as well omitted even in the abjlracl and 
 fpe 'dilative quartos of William Godwin. For my 
 own part, at leaft, confeious of the difficulty of 
 keeping clear from all dangerous mifapprehen- 
 fions, I have never ventured to enter much into 
 the fubjea: not but that I can fee with as much 
 clearnefs, and feel with as keen a fympathy, as 
 Mr. Burke (when it fuits the purpofes of his 
 political frenzy and perfonal refentments) can 
 himfelf pretend, the vices, the miferies, the 
 unfocial pride and abject wretchednefs too fre- 
 quently produced in fociety bv thofe huo- e 
 mafies and immeafurable difproportions of pro- 
 perty, which unjuft laws and impolitic inftitu- 
 tions, more than the rapacity of individuals, have 
 tended to accumulate. 
 
 Perhaps there is no humane and reflecting 
 man who does not, occafionally at leaft, wifh 
 
 D that 
 
( *8 ) 
 
 that refpectability were more attached to other 
 things, and lefs to wealth; that the great body 
 of the people were "^deemed from that neceffity 
 of unremitting drudgery, penurious food, and 
 confequent ignorance and depremon of intellect, 
 to which they are fo invariably doomed ; and 
 that the huge and unwieldy maffes of wealth and 
 territory (too vaft for enjoyment — too dazzling 
 for juft and prudent diftribution) were in the way 
 of being gradually and peacefully melted down, 
 by the falutary operation of wife and equitable 
 laws. There is perhaps, for example, no one 
 who does not occasionally queftion the juftice of 
 the law of primogeniture — the great root of all 
 the evil; and the propriety of marrying together 
 contiguous and overgrown eftates, without re- 
 gard to the inclinations, difpofitions, taftes, aver- 
 iions, and confequent morals of the parties, who 
 are to be the inftruments, or perhaps the victims, 
 of thefe fchemes of family aggrandizement. In 
 fhort, there are undoubtedly a thoufand evils 
 refulting from the prefent ftate of things, in this 
 refpe£t; and there are perhaps a thoufand pal- 
 liative remedies that might be applied without 
 lacerating the focial frame, or diflblving the 
 facred ties of reciprocal fecurity and protec- 
 tion. Whatever can be done, in this or any 
 other refpect, for the emancipation of mankind, 
 and the advancement of general happinefs, it is 
 right that we mould enquire into the means of 
 
 doing; 
 
( >9 ) 
 
 doing ; and the wider the real knowledge of thofe 
 means can be diffeminated, the better for the 
 peace and happinefs of the world. Every thing 
 that relates to this fubjeSr. ought, however, I re- 
 peat it, to be treated with extreme delicacy and 
 caution ; for there are conclufions fo falfe, and 
 confequences fo terrible, laying within a hair's 
 breadth, as it were, of the truths we aim at, that 
 he who rufhes forward with too boifterous a pre- 
 cipitancy, is in danger of provoking all the hor- 
 rors of tumult and affaflination ; initead of ame- 
 liorating the condition of the human race. No 
 tricks and arts of eloquence, no gulls of paffion, 
 no inflammatory declamation, nor the leaft incite- 
 ment to perfonal animofity or refentment, ought 
 to be admitted in the examination of fuch a 
 queftion. It is a new and untried navigation. 
 Almoft all that we know about it is, that the 
 ihoals are dangerous, and the quickfands innu- 
 merable. And under fuch circumftances, above 
 all, it mud certainly be the duty of a cautious 
 mariner to " heave the lead every inch of the 
 " way he makes*." But Mr. Burke, who, when a 
 few places and penfions were all the freight he 
 had on board, thought thefe precautions neceffary, 
 tears from its moorings the velfel of hereditary 
 property, and, notwithstanding " the aweful ftate 
 
 * -Letter, p. 23. 
 
 D2 of 
 
( ^o ) 
 
 " of the time*," giving the rudder to his refent- 
 ment, expofes it, at random, to all the fury of the 
 tempeft which himfelf has raifed. 
 
 Is it polTible that Mr. Burke's new patrons 
 can countenance all this? Has the zeal of his 
 penfioned gratitude transported him too far? Or 
 is it a part of the long-digefted confpiracy of po- 
 litical panders and rotten borough-mongers ? Is 
 no property to be facred, but the property of feats 
 and votes in the Houfe of Commons ? And are 
 the foundations of all other inheritance to be 
 fhaken, that thefe ufurpations may be render- 
 ed the more fecure, and the authority of the 
 Steeles and the Rofes, who meafure their eftates by 
 the fquare inch on the planks of St. Stephen's 
 chapel, be relieved from the checks and counter- 
 poifes that may hitherto have controuled the 
 exercife of their fpurious fovereignty ? 
 
 Let us hope, at leaft, that we are not to look 
 for the folution of this myftery to fome blacker 
 caufe. Let us hope, at leaft, that this infidious 
 new-created oligarchy have not, on the profpecl: 
 of failure in their ordinary refources, turned to 
 the bird's-eye profpecl of new " confifcations of the 
 fl ancient nobility of the landf," to fupport their 
 all-devouring fyflem of corruption. Let us hope, 
 at leaft, that this inflammatory farago of denun-. 
 
 * Letter, p. 36. f Ibid. p. 41. 
 
 ciation 
 
(21) 
 
 ciation and profcription — this portentous retro- 
 fpe£t of two hundred and fifty years is not fent 
 out, as the avant courier of a fanguinary faclion, 
 to prepare the way for the meditated, cataftrophe 
 of other " innocent perfons of illuftrious rank *," 
 whofe fate, according to Mr. Burke's fuperftitious 
 mode of calculation, might atone for <c the but- 
 " chery of the Duke of Buckingham f," and the 
 " pillage" committed upon that " body of unof- 
 " fending men *," the monks of Tavijtock and 
 Wooburn Abbey \ . 
 
 Inflammatory pamphlets, and ferocious fcurri- 
 lities in the daily prints, have however paved the 
 way, of late, for attempts equally daring and un- 
 expected : and the axe, which has pafled over 
 the humble weeds without inflicting a wound, 
 may be deftined to try its edge upon the ftatelieft 
 oaks of the foreft. 
 
 Some, perhaps, may put together the circum- 
 ftances of Mr. Burke's education, the pathetic 
 lamentations which he has poured forth in a for- 
 mer publication §, upon the impious invafion of 
 the facred numbers of the cloifter, and the fre- 
 quent allufions in this pamphlet to the wrongs 
 of monks and abbots, priefls and Cordeliers, Ca- 
 puchins, Carmelites, Francifcans, and Domini- 
 cans || ; and hence they mayfuppofe, at leaft, that 
 
 * Letter, p. 42. f Ibid. p. 48. % Ibid p. 68. 
 § Reflections, Sec. || Letter, p. 41, 42, 43, 67, 68. 
 
 they 
 
( 22 ) 
 
 they have difcovered another reafon for the in- 
 temperate zeal of the pupil of St. Omers. They 
 may trace, perhaps, in this bitter and inflexible 
 malevolence againft the inheritor of the crimes of 
 former centuries, the feeds of that metaphyseal piety y 
 fo confident with the myftical refinements of a 
 Jefuit's college, which afcribes all the fublime 
 attributes of the Deity to whatever is connected 
 with the priefthood, and, of courfe, confiders 
 the wrongs of that facred order, according to 
 their own language, as neither paft nor future— 
 as exifting always in the prefent tenfe — accumu- 
 lated and concentrated in the ONE ETERNAL 
 NOW ! ! ! 
 
 If, however, we appeal to internal evidence, 
 we (hall find that motives of a more perfonal na- 
 ture have not been entirely without influence in 
 the production of this pamphlet. That unfocial 
 vanity— that irritable felf-love — that proud im- 
 patience of queftion or controul, which regards 
 all oppofition as infult, and " all infult as a 
 " wound *$" — in fhort, that proud and revengeful 
 egotifm, which has formed fo diftinguifhing a 
 trait in the character of all inveterate ariftocrats, 
 from Appius Claudius to Edmund Burke, muft be 
 admitted to have had fomething to do, at leaft, 
 with the colouring of the piece, to whatever in- 
 
 Refle&ions, Sec. 
 
 (ligation 
 
C 23 ) 
 
 ftigation we may attribute the fketch, or the 
 original defign. What but this could have 
 hurried fuch a man into fuch extravagant incon- 
 fiftencies? What but this, even penfioned as 
 he is, could have rendered him fo blind an inflru- 
 ment to the ufurpations of a fa6tion which he 
 cannot but defpife, and have driven him with 
 fuch headlong violence to the deftruclion of 
 every principle which he had hitherto pretended 
 to revere ? 
 
 There are, it is true, perfons who have at all 
 times regarded Mr. Burke as a fplendid inftance 
 of the depravity of genius— as a man of bafe and 
 time-ferving difpofition, whofe patriotifm was 
 the mere purchafed property of a party, which 
 held him in dependance by the loans granted to 
 him by the Marquis of Rockingham; and it was, 
 therefore, thought confiftent enough, when his 
 patron, by a laft aft of liberality, had cancelled 
 all legal obligation, that he mould fet himfelf 
 to fale to the oppofite party, and become the 
 furious opponent of every principle he had been 
 hired to defend. I have endeavoured, however, 
 to judge him with greater charity. I have fought 
 for, and thought I had difcovered, a principle 
 that would account for his conduct in a lefs dis- 
 honourable way. My folution, it is true, would 
 ftill have left him among the number of thofe 
 deluded men whofe judgments have been per- 
 verted 
 
( 24 ) 
 
 verted by a miftaken fenfe of private obligation ; 
 but it would not have reduced him to the level of 
 fordid corruption. 
 
 In fhort, I conceived Mr. Burke to have been 
 throughout a Republican of the old Roman fchool ! 
 or, in other words, a high-toned ariftocrat. And 
 I readily accounted for this twift in his under- 
 ftanding from the patronage which it had been 
 his misfortune to experience. For it is but too 
 natural with us to regard thofe inftitutions as 
 every thing, without which we mould ourfelves, 
 apparently, have been nothing. It was, there- 
 fore, not extraordinary that Mr. Burke, finding 
 himfelf redeemed, by the powerful and generous 
 patronage of the leader of an ariftocratic party, 
 from the neccffity of being a public letlurer in a 
 provincial univerfity, and tranfplanted to the 
 more genial foil of political influence, mould 
 think himfelf bound in gratitude to exalt that 
 ariflocracy to which alone he owed his ex- 
 altation. 
 
 Upon this folution, his conduct, apparently fo 
 oppofite, with refpe£t to the American and French 
 revolutions, is perfectly reconcileable. For with 
 pure, genuine, whole-length ariftocrats, princes 
 and people are alike indifferent: alike obnoxious, 
 when they afpire to any fliare of power ; and alike 
 acceptable, as the tools and inftruments of their 
 ambition. But as, in all mixed governments, 
 
 their 
 
( *3 ) 
 
 their power is of a very doubtful and amphibious 
 nature, but little recognized by the avowed maxims 
 and fpirit of the conftitution, and depending rather 
 upon the influence of their property, and their 
 talent for intrigue, than either the weight of their 
 functions, or real attachment of the people, as 
 circumftances vary they are obliged to vary the 
 fafhion of their fentiments and conduct. Their 
 principle and their object is, however, always the 
 fame; and always has been fo, whether they in- 
 ftigated the people to deftroy a Tarquin, or created 
 a Tar quin to deftroy the people *. Law and 
 liberty are alternately in their mouths; but their 
 liberty is the unreftrained licence of monopolizing 
 oppreffion, and their law the arbitrary exercife 
 of their own difcretion. The dignity of the fove- 
 reign, and the fovereignty of the people, are 
 alternate ftalking horfes for their usurpations. 
 As Mr. Burke exprefles it — " Popularity and 
 " power they regard alike. Thefe are with them 
 " only different means to obtain their object: ; 
 " and have no preference over each other in their 
 " minds, but as one or the other may afford a 
 " furer or lefs certain profpect of arriving at 
 " their end f" 
 
 * The reader is particularly recommended to perufe with 
 attention the account given by Dionyfius of Halicarnaflus 
 ( B. IV.) of the murder of Senilis Tullius, and of the expulfion 
 of the Tarquins. 
 
 f Letter, p. i ;. 
 
 E Such 
 
( *6 ) 
 
 Such are the characteriftics of inveterate arif- 
 tocracy — of the high-toned optimates of mixed and 
 limited governments: a fet of men widely dif- 
 ferent from the ancient Tories of this coun- 
 try: — more dangerous, I believe, to the peace 
 and happinefs of fociety; certainly more defti- 
 tute of all fupport from rational and confident 
 principle. Such is the party to which the firft 
 talents, the moll capacious understandings, per- 
 haps the beft hearts in this nation, have been too 
 long enflaved ! Such is the party to which I ima- 
 gined Mr. Burke to be infeparably wedded. 
 
 This fuppofition is countenanced by his whole 
 political hiftory. This fuppofition is confirmed 
 by his own account of what he calls his public 
 fer vices; that is to fay, his fervices to this party. 
 And, upon this fuppofition, his conduct with re- 
 fpect to the French revolution, is perfectly recon- 
 cileable to his conduct refpecting America. 
 
 The principle of the two revolutions was, 
 perhaps, the fame: though this may be contefted, 
 at leaft, upon very plauiible grounds. Their ope- 
 ration in this country was, however, widely dif- 
 ferent. Party difputes ran high, it is true, on 
 both occafions; and the nation was unhappily 
 divided into the moil inveterate factions. But in 
 the former inftance, it was the gentry, the opti- 
 macy, the ariftocratic intereit, that moved — that 
 agitated, and conducted every thing; in the 
 
 latter, 
 
( 27 ) 
 
 latter, the great body of the people — the common 
 tnafs, had the audacity to judge for themfelves, 
 and inquire into the nature of their rights. 
 
 Could an inveterate ariftocrat be expected to 
 tolerate this? Was it not to be expected, that 
 perfons of this defcription, (like the ariftocracy 
 of Spain, upon a iimilar occafion) lhould cling to 
 the throne for protection, againft what they regard- 
 ed as the invajions of Liberty, and permit themfelves 
 to be degraded and enfiaved, rather than fuffer the 
 people to be free ? 
 
 Thus did the candid and liberal part of man- 
 kind account for the apparent inconfiftencies of 
 Mr. Burke; and, by referring his whole conduct to 
 the influence of ariftocratic prejudices, exonerate 
 him from the charge of venal apoftacy. But 
 what fhall we fay now ? What opinion fliall we 
 form of the prefent work ? To what principle 
 ihall we refer the incongruous fentiments it con- 
 tains ? Certainly not to that abhorrence of un- 
 controuled prerogative which infpired him with 
 the enthufiafm of oppofition during the American 
 war, and made rebellion for liberty lovely in his 
 eyes ; thefe fentiments were relinquifhed, for the 
 reafons above Hated, at the very dawn of the 
 French revolution. Certainly, not to thofe feel- 
 ings which, during the difcuilion of the regency 
 bill, occafioned that exulting, indecent, and un- 
 feeling exclamation — " The Almighty has hurled 
 E 2 « him 
 
( 28 ) 
 
 " him from his throne!" — Mr. Burke has learned 
 a very different " ftyle to a gracious benefactor* ! " 
 His Majefty is now "a benevolent prince," who 
 " fliews an eminent example, in promoting the 
 ? commerce, manufactures, and agriculture of 
 " his kingdom ;" and " who even in his amufe- 
 I s ments is a patriot, and in his hours of leifure an 
 " improver of his native foil j":" — a pofition, the 
 truth of which no one will call in queftion. But 
 is it more true at this time than before the above- 
 mentioned period ? I, for my part, can perceive 
 no alteration. The benevolence and patriotifm 
 of the prefent reign has been fteady, uniform, and 
 confiftent. At leaft, the only important difference 
 is, that Mr. Burke has now a penjion from his 
 " mild and benevolent fovereign;" and that then he 
 expected a place from his fucceffor! Still lefs can 
 we refer this extraordinary pamphlet to thofe 
 ariftocratical principles which offered the only 
 folution of his former conducl. 
 
 " The government of France," fays that great 
 oracle, Sir John Mitford\ y " was totally over- 
 " thrown in confequence of the total failure of 
 " the good opinion of the people;" and hence 
 that profound and fubtile logician thought him- 
 felf entitled to infer, that it mud neceffarily be 
 high treafon to make the foundations of popular 
 
 * fetter, &c p. 10. f Ibid. p. 44. J Trial of T. Hardy. 
 
 opinion : 
 
( *9 ) 
 
 opinion: but if this conclulion were juft, never 
 was fo capital a treafon committed againft the 
 ariftocratic branch of the conftitution, as by the 
 publication of Mr. Burkes pamphlet. 
 
 Is the compofition of ariftocracy fuch as Mr. 
 Burke reprefents it?— Then is the very inftitution 
 of ariftocracy radically vicious! — Is it " the offal 
 " thrown to jackals in waiting," after " the lion 
 " has fucked the blood*?" and are " innocent 
 " perfonsf," and " bodies of unoffending menf 
 the " prey" upon which both are pampered: — I 
 am afraid thefe premifes would carry us further 
 than Mr. Burke and his new friends are yet pre- 
 pared to go. I am afraid it would be fomething 
 like high treafon, at leaft, under Lord Grenvi/le's 
 new a£t, to draw the conclufions that irievitably 
 refult from fuch data ! ! ! And yet if fuch pamph- 
 lets are put in circulation by the advocates and 
 penfwners of government, what acl of parliament 
 can prevent the confequences? 
 
 Mr. Burke, an advocate of government ! Mr. 
 Burke, the champion of ariftocracy ! Mr. Burke, 
 the political Atlas who fupports with fuch 
 " great zeal," and fuch " fuccefs,"— •« thofe old 
 " prejudices which buoy up the ponderous mafs 
 " of nobility, wealth, and titles j!" Judge for 
 yourfelves, my fellow citizens: but before you 
 
 * Letter, &c. p. 41. f Ibid. p. 42. % Ibid. Sec. p. 34. 
 
 pronounce, 
 
( 30 ) 
 pronounce, too pofitively, read with attention 
 his eighty pages of virulent abufe againft 
 " overgrown dukes, who opprefs the indujlry of 
 " humble men*/" — " who hold large portions of 
 " wealth" (" the prodigies of profufe donation t") 
 " without any apparent merit of their own J!" 
 and by their " vaft landed penfions^ (obtained by 
 the blacked crimes of treachery and opprefiion||) 
 « fo enormous as not only to outrage cecono- 
 " my, but even to dagger credibility f," — 
 " trample on the mediocrity of laborious indi- 
 " viduals** !" 
 
 But it is not only with the battle-axe of moral 
 indignation that Mr. Burke affails the ariftocracy 
 of his country. With equal expertnefs, and 
 equal ardour, he wings the light, keen fhafts of 
 fatire and ridicule : nay, fo blunt is his fympathy, 
 and fo exquiiite his animolity, that he even 
 tears it occasionally with the rude hand-favv ot 
 pointlefs fcurrilitytf. The rage of Juvenil, and 
 the playful levity of Horace, are not fufficient ; and 
 Billingfgate and the fhambles are forced into 
 alliance with the mufes, the daffies, and the 
 fciences, to fupply him with terms and meta- 
 phors fufficiently forcible to exprefs the mighty 
 hatred with which he labours. 
 
 * Letter, &c. p. 33. f Ibid. p. 39. t Ibid. p. 34- 
 
 § Ibid. p. 38. || Ibid. p. 41, 42, 43 ? 44> and 46. H Ibld ' 
 p. 37. ** Ibid. p. 39. ft I bid - P- 37? 68 > 6 9- 
 
 Youthful 
 
V 3 1 ) 
 
 Youthful intemperance may furnifli fome apo- 
 logy for hafty and indecorous language: but if 
 grey hairs expect our reverence, they muft pur- 
 chafe it by difcretion, wifdom, and moderation. 
 Mr. Burke, however, retains, at three-fcore, his 
 
 juvenile contempt for thefe cold qualities 
 
 u this well felefted rigour !"— this "preventive 
 u police of morality*!" The hungry lionefs 
 rufhes not with fo blind a fury upon her prey, 
 as he upon the victims of his refentment. I am 
 told that a noble attendant of the bedchamber 
 (I mean Lord Winchelfea) who turned feveral of 
 his tenants out of their farms, &c. for being 
 guilty of diftant relationfliip to me, and of havino- 
 read my publications, among other things, com- 
 plained very bitterly of fome pafTages in my 
 u Peripatetic," which he confidered as calculated 
 to inflame the minds of the common people 
 againft the opulent and the great. I will not 
 venture to affirm that there are no expreffions or 
 fentiments, in that hafty publication, which, upon 
 mature confideration, might demand fome foften- 
 ing or apology. But to fay nothing of the much 
 more popular and « queftionable fhape" in 
 which Mr. Burkes pamphlet comes before the 
 public, I defy all the lords of the bedchamber 
 
 * Letter, &c. p. 34. 
 
 put 
 
( 3* ) 
 
 put together, to find in the work before-mentioned, 
 or in any other of my productions, paffages of any 
 thing like the inflammatory nature with thofe in 
 which the " Letter to a Noble Lord" abounds. 
 I have pleaded, it is true, and while I have a 
 tongue or a pen to exercife in fo juft a caufe, I 
 will continue to plead, the caufe of the opprefled 
 and injured labourer. I have reproved the un- 
 feeling and faftidious pride of greatnefs; and 
 offered fome thing in extenuation for the pilfering 
 vices of laborious wretchednefs. I have even 
 prefumed to hurl back the charge of difhonefty 
 upon " mighty lords, and defcendants from the 
 " loofe amours of kings," who " rob us, by letters 
 t( patent, and fuffer not a coal to blaze in our 
 " grates, nor an action to be brought for the 
 " recovery of a juft debt, till they have levied 
 * contribution upon us:" But Mr. Burke flies at 
 higher quarry. He pounces at once at hereditary 
 property; calls the birds of prey around him, and 
 excites them to the promifed banquet. 
 
 In fhort, if the daemon of anarchy willied to 
 reduce the focial frame to chaos, what charms 
 more proper could he .fele£t for his incantations 
 than the ingredients of this troubled cauldron ? 
 Should fome prophet of pillage and maffacre in 
 reality arife, what more could he with for than 
 fuch a Koran? what further inftructions could he 
 
 give 
 
( 33 ) 
 
 give to his apoftles and miilionaries than to com- 
 ment upon the text of Edmund Burke, and puili 
 his principles to their molt obvious conclufions? 
 
 I truft, however — and, in this one refpect, my 
 opportunities of forming a juft conclulion have 
 been much fuperior to my antagonift's — I truft, 
 that what are called ' the common people of this 
 country are in no danger of being ftimulated to 
 fuch excefles as this letter fometimes pretends to 
 deprecate, but more frequently appears calcu- 
 lated to provoke. I too have laboured " with 
 " very great zeal, and I believe with fome degree 
 " of fuccefs*" (rather more, if I am not miftaken, 
 than Mr. Burke can boaft of in his attempt to 
 " fupport old prejudices*") not indeed " to 
 " difcountenance enquiry*" but to give it a juft 
 direction ; — to point out to the poorer fort in 
 particular of my fellow citizens, fmarting and 
 writhing under the lafh of opprelTion and con- 
 tumely, the peaceful means of redrefsj to (hew 
 them the diftinclion between tumult and reform 
 — between the amelioration and the diffolution 
 of fociety — the removal of oppreflion, and the 
 fanguinary purfuits of pillage and revenge. I 
 truft that the falutary leffon has not been en- 
 forced in vain — that whatever calamities may refult 
 to fociety , from the prefent enormous inequality in the 
 
 * Letter, &c. p. 34. 
 
 F diflribution 
 
( 34 ) 
 
 dijlribation of property, all tumultuary attacks upon 
 individual pojjeffion, all attempts, or pretences of level- 
 ling and equalization, mufl be attended with maffacres 
 and affajjinations, equally deflruclive to the fecurity of 
 every order of mankind; and, after a long flruggle of 
 affiiclions and horrors, mufl terminate at lafl, not in 
 equalization, but in a mofl iniquitous transfer, by which 
 cut-throats and affajfms would be enabled to found a 
 new order of nobility, more injufferable, becaufe more 
 ignorant and ferocious, than thofe whom their daggers 
 had fupplanted. 
 
 The friends of liberty know that, fooner or 
 later, the progrefs of reafon muft produce (per- 
 haps, at no diftant period) an effential reformation 
 in the government and inftitutions of this coun- 
 try: but (unlefsthe frantic and defperate councils 
 of fuch men as Mr. Burke and Mr. Windham, 
 mould unhinge all fociety, under pretence of preferv- 
 ing order) no part of the exceffes which have 
 rent and convulfed the devoted land of France 
 need be dreaded in England: for the caufes of 
 thofe exceffes do not exift among us. Reform, 
 like a long-woo'd virgin, fhall come at lafl, in 
 the unfullied robes of Peace, and, in the Temple 
 of Concord, fhall give her hand to Reafon. But 
 fuch hymeneals fuit not the taftes and difpofi- 
 tions of Mr. Burke; for placemen and penfioners 
 will not be invited to the banquet. The mar- 
 riage of Tyranny and Corruption, in a robe of 
 
 blood, 
 
( 35 ) 
 
 blood, would be more in harmony with his difor- 
 dered and irritated imagination ; with a legion of 
 foreign mercenaries to protect the pomp, and a 
 proceffion of Inquifitors, and an Auto da Fe, to 
 clofe the accuftomed revels! 
 
 Such, at leaft, are the only orgies, for which the 
 vows and the offerings of Mr. Burke are calcu- 
 lated to prepare. Such alone are the fyftems to 
 which his maxims and fentiments are reconcile- 
 able: For if, on one hand, all democratic innova- 
 tion — all reform is to be pertinacioufly refilled, 
 and on the other, all refpecl for rank, fortune, and 
 hereditary ftation are to be torn away, by the 
 impaflioned hand of perfonal rancour and factious 
 malevolence — if the people, deprived of all legal 
 weight and influence in the legiflature of the 
 country, and therefore of all attachment from 
 rational and well-placed affection, are to be 
 ftimulated to perfonal hatred and animofity 
 againft the noble, the wealthy, and the great, 
 whom they are to be taught by minijierial hirelings 
 (oh ! that fuch a mind fliould ever be included in 
 fuch a defcription !) to regard as the plunderers 
 of their anceftors, and the oppreffbrs of themfelves, 
 what but tyranny the moft unqualified — what but 
 blood — what but foreign mercenaries, and the 
 united horrors of inquifitorial and military def- 
 potifm, can long fuftain that rule which miniflers 
 pretend to be fo anxious to preferve unaltered? 
 
 F 2 What 
 
t 36 ] 
 
 What but this? — Nay: not this, nor more!!! — 
 Britons may be led : but driven they will not be. 
 They have fpirit — they have intelligence — they 
 have a manly firmnefs-^-they have fome know- 
 ledge of their rights, and a keen defire to poffefs 
 them. In fhort, they are men who live to- 
 wards the clofe of the eighteenth century, and 
 have feen two Revolutions: and if Bifhops con- 
 tinue to preach, that " they have nothing to do 
 " with, the laws but to obey them V' and Lord 
 Chancellors to declare, that " the laws they are 
 " to obey ought to be couched in fuch terms 
 " that they cannot comprehend them !" — If 
 wafteful wars are to create famines, and illuftrious 
 peers are to confole the half-ftarved people with 
 the reflection, that " their fcanty mefs would 
 " have been ftill more fcanty, if fo many of 
 " their friends and relatives had not been 
 u ilaughtered 5" or, as Mr. Windham would call 
 it, killed off, " in foreign expeditions !" — If every 
 door is to be clofed againft peaceful remonftrance 
 and complaint, and Secretaries at War are to 
 thruft obnoxious ftatutes down our throats with 
 the fabres of armed aflbciators ! — and if, finally, 
 every gallant patriot, noble or fimple, who has 
 the generofity to item the torrent of corruption, 
 is to be befet by treafury blood hounds, and 
 hunted with threats of confifcation and profcrip- 
 
 tion ; 
 
[ 37 3 
 
 lion; by the great terror that fwells my heart, as 
 imagination conjures up the picture, I do not 
 believe that earth or hell have power to fuftain 
 the fyftem ; but that which France has been, 
 Britain too foon mult be! 
 
 If fuch events mould take place, whom has 
 the country to thank but the Grenvi/Ies, the Wejl- 
 mor elands — the Pitts, and Wind hams f — If pro- 
 perty mould be ihaken, and nobility go to wreck, 
 who founds the Indian yell of pillage and defla- 
 tion, but the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, 
 with his " Letter to a noble Lord ?" 
 
 In vain (hall the advocates of this political 
 maniac accufe me of mifreprefenting his argu- 
 ments, by generalizing obfervations which he 
 has confined to a particular inftance. I do no 
 more than every reader of his pamphlet mult in- 
 evitably do. It is the Duke of Bedford, indeed, 
 that is oftenfibly attacked; but the whole body of 
 nobility and landed proprietors, are wounded 
 through his fide. Let not the partizans of the 
 minifter weakly and wickedly fuppofe, " the 
 " rival honours of the houfe of Riiffel are 
 " blighted by this pamphlet, and public odium 
 " excited againft their wide porTeilions ; but we 
 iC have yet — 
 
 " Golden opinions from all ranks of men, 
 
 " Which may be worn ftill in their neweft glofs." 
 
 Shakesfeare. 
 
 Let 
 
t 38 ) 
 
 Let them not, I fay, " lay this flattering 
 " un£tion to their fouls." There is not one argu- 
 ment of moral reprehenfion — one ftroke offatire, 
 or ridicule — one intemperate expreffion of de- 
 gradation or abufe, that does not equally apply 
 to them all. Old nobility and new, all are in- 
 cluded^ — all are alike the victims of Mr. Burke's 
 irritated pride and immeafurable refentments. 
 Their patents, their deeds of gift, their titles, 
 and their rent-rolls, all — all are confumed toge- 
 ther in this conflagration of his inflamed and all- 
 inflaming mind! 
 
 If the eftates of the Duke of Bedford deferve 
 the odious appellation of " landed penfions *," 
 are not the eftates of the Dukes of Portland, of 
 Rutland, of Richmond, of the Earls of Wejlmore- 
 land, Winchelj'ea, Lonfdale, and the long train of 
 et ceteras, " landed penfions" alfo ? Is the Duke 
 of Bedford a " Leviathan among the creatures 
 4< of the crown, who plays and frolics in the 
 " ocean of royal bounty," (by which, I fuppofe, 
 we are to underftand that the king, whenever 
 his virtuous and difmterefted minifters fhall fo 
 advife, may withdraw his bounty^, and transfer 
 thefe " landed penfions," to more grateful fer- 
 vants !) is not the Earl Fitzwilliam a " Leviathan" 
 alfo? and, would not all the difgufting details 
 
 * Letter, &c. p. 3S. f If this is not the meaning of 
 this language, what does it mean? 
 
 / of 
 
[ 39 ] 
 
 of this figure, in which Mr. 'Burke indulges his 
 imagination, equally apply in one inftance as in 
 the other? Does he not, alio, *' lay floating 
 ? many a rood *?" And if the " overgrown" bulk 
 of the one " opprefle.s the induftry of humble 
 " menf," are not the unwieldy proportions of the 
 other equally opprefiive ? Was Mr. Rnjfel, in the 
 time of Henry the eighth, a " Jackall in Wait* 
 " ing J?" What are the Hawkejburies, the Lough- 
 boroughs, the Macdonalds, and the long lift of new- 
 created peers, whofe wliolefale elevation has 
 tended, not a little, to fhake the prefcriptive 
 reverence, or in Mr. Burke's own words, " thofe 
 "old prejudices§," which can alone fupport a 
 houfe of hereditary legijlators f If it is a dif- 
 grace to the Duke of Bedford to have been 
 " fwaddled and rocked, and dandled into a 
 " legiflator || ," have not the whole body 
 of nobility, by defcent, become legiflators in 
 the fame ridiculous manner? — If I were not afraid 
 of being fufpe&ed of courting the favour of 
 party, (than which nothing, I believe, is more 
 deftruclive to the energies of genuine patriotifm) 
 or bowing to the fplendour of wealth and pa- 
 tronage (than which nothing is more degrading 
 to the free-born mind!) it would be only a tri- 
 bute of juftice, to the value and ability of late 
 
 * Letter, &c. p. 37. f Ibid, p. 33, % Ibid, p. 41. 
 § Ibid, p. 34, || Ibid, p. 28. 
 
 exertions 
 
[ 40 ] 
 
 exertions to fay, that it would be well foi* the 
 country, and for the honour of that houfe, of 
 which the Duke of Bedford has rendered himfelf 
 a diflingniflied ornament — if this legiflative fwaddling, 
 and rocking, and dandling, had been uniformly as 
 efficient to the end propofed. On the contrary, 
 how many of our iiluftrious nobles (aye, and of 
 thofe whom Mr. Burke muft now rank among 
 the number of his friends!) are no better, to this 
 day, than " mewling in a nurfe's arms;" or, 
 what is worfe, with a criminal fupinenefs, equally 
 dillionourable to their rank and to their nature, 
 are abandoning every thing to the fpoil and uSur- 
 pations of a fet of jobbers, loan contractors, 
 Chan^e-allev calculators and adventurers, who 
 have no other claim to the implicit confidence 
 they enjoy, than what is derived from the dis- 
 grace and mifery, the ruin, defolation and famine, 
 which their mad projects, and defperate Specu- 
 lations have brought upon the country — and, in- 
 deed, upon the whole of Europe? 
 
 But this is not the only inftance in which the 
 flail of Mr. Burke ftrikes harder behind than it 
 does before. I do not trouble myfelf to enquire 
 whether this firfl: leaf of " Burke's new Peerage" 
 afford a Specimen of accuracy and impartiality, 
 or of mifreprefentation and malevolence. The 
 queftion w T ith me (and the only queftion of real 
 importance to Society) is, not how property was 
 
 acquired 
 
[ 4i 1 
 
 acquired three hundred years ago? but — how- 
 it is now employed ? If the Duke of Bedford is 
 difpofed, as I hope and truft he is, to employ 
 his great property and influence to the protec- 
 tion of the liberties and happinefs of his coun- 
 try, the people will have an intereft in the pro- 
 tection of that property. If there be others who 
 are difpofed to abufe their advantages, to the 
 flavery and deftru&ion of mankind, let them 
 beware, left they urge the people to do that 
 mf elf -defence, which, from principle, they would 
 abhor: for it is not very ftrange that grind- 
 ing oppreflion mould fometimes force the ha- 
 raffed multitude to reftea, that the rights and 
 happinefs of* millions are of more importance 
 than the fecurity and poflefTions of a few. The 
 alternative, it is true, is dreadful : but the crime 
 is with thofe who compel a nation to choofe be- 
 tween fuch hideous extremes. 
 
 Regarding property in this point of view, I 
 enquire not how "the firft Earl of Bedford' 7 
 acquired the vaft eftates which he has tranfmit- 
 ted to his pofterity; nor by what title John a 
 Gaunt held thofe immenfe commons, which he be- 
 queathed in perpetuum to the poor of the refpec- 
 tive diftricls. I would not even be very curious 
 to enquire into the means by which the wretch- 
 ed peafantry have been deprived of thefe free- 
 holds, and their eftates transferred to a few 
 
 G wealthy 
 
[ 4* ] 
 
 wealthy proprietors ; unlefs it were with a view 
 of preventing future encroachments. But, furely, 
 Mr. Burke does not fuppofe us ignorant enough 
 to believe, that Mr. Rujfel is the only founder of a 
 family, whofe merits it would be painful to 
 probe. Does he call us to look back to the 
 reign of Henry the eighth? — who, by the way, 
 tyrant and monfter as he was, (and even Mr. 
 Burke, it feems, is aware that kings can fome- 
 times be fuch) by exterminating from the 
 country thofe lazy and peftiferous drones, the 
 monks and religionifts " of his time and coun- 
 " try*," made an ample atonement to fociety for 
 all his crimes ! — Does Mr. Burke, I fay, call upon 
 us to look back to the reign of this eighth 
 Harry? Let this " defender of the high and emi- 
 " nentf" reflect, that we can look farther! or we 
 need not look fo far! Let him afk the houfe of 
 Bentinck, whether there were no " prodigies o£ 
 " profufe donation" in the time of William the 
 third? Whether the " lions" of the houfe otHajjau 
 had not their "jackaUs," as well as thofe of the 
 houfe of Tudor f Let him afk the proudeft he 
 that ever traced his genealogy to the times of 
 the Norman robber, whether there were no in- 
 ftances, even in thofe good old days, of " immo- 
 " derate grants taken from the recent confifcation 
 
 * Letter, &c. p. 43. f Ibid. p. 42. 
 
 " of 
 
( 43 ) 
 
 c: of the ancient nobility of the land*:" Had 
 none of the landed penfions of that day their 
 u fund in the murder of innocent perfons, or in 
 " the pillage of bodies of menf," more truly 
 " unoffending:" than thofe cloiftered drones and 
 juggling \ ■iiionaries, whofe difperfion Mr. Burke fo 
 pathetically bewails ? 
 
 Could the monks of IVooburn and Tavijiock, and 
 the murdered franklins and freeholders of thofe 
 days of old, rife at once from their graves, (like 
 the furies who purfued Oreftes) to harafs the pre- 
 fent poffeffors of their refpective feats, whofe 
 wrongs would found moft terrible in the affrighted 
 ears of nobility ? — whofe appeal would be moft 
 forcible to retributive juftice ? 
 
 Mr. Burke has done an irreparable injury to 
 the caufe of ariftocracy by provoking this difcuf- 
 fion ; and, if an antidote is not applied, which I 
 truft it will, by fair and manly expofition of the 
 fubject, has fet a poifon in circulation moft danger- 
 ous to the health and exiftence of the focial frame. 
 
 The attachment, however, of this polemic to 
 ariftocracy, appears at leaft to be as fincere as his 
 religion. He pretends to fofter and protect the 
 former, and he tears it up by the roots, from that 
 only foil in which any inftitution can flourilh — 
 the opinions of the people over whom it fpreads. 
 
 * Letter, &c. p. 41. f IbiJ. 42. 
 
 G 2 He 
 
( 44 ) 
 
 He pretends to be a zealot in behalf of the lat- 
 ter, and he acts on the direct converfe of the 
 pofition upon which the morality of that fyftem 
 is profeffedly built. The decalogue only de- 
 nounces vengeance upon the pofterity of offenders 
 to the third and fourth generations ; but promifes 
 mercy to thoufands of the righteous and good. 
 Mr. Burke, on the contrary, vilits the fins of the 
 forefathers upon generations without end, and 
 paffes by their virtues, as of no account at all. 
 
 I repeat it — for I am no fimulator ; nor have 
 the popular fchools in which I have been falhion- 
 ed, (whatever contempt Mr. Burke may now think 
 fit to entertain for them) made me fo keen a 
 difputant, as to be willing, for the fake of victory, 
 to appear the thing I am not. I repeat it, there- 
 fore, I do not ftand up as the advocate of here- 
 ditary diftinCtions, or hereditary honours. All 
 honour, and all mame, are, in my calculation, 
 merely perfonal. Goods and chattels may be 
 heritable property ; and in fuch a fociety as we 
 are members of, I am convinced that it is necef- 
 fary they lhoukl be fo. But moral and intellectual 
 diftinctions, (the fountains of all real honour) are 
 neither heritable nor transferable; nor is it in the 
 power of human laws to make them fuch. They 
 begin and they end with the immediate porlefTor. 
 I admit, at the fame time, that anceftral reputa- 
 tion fometimes operates very powerfully in the 
 
 way 
 
( 45 ) 
 
 way of example. Strong inftances of this are to 
 be found both in the hiftory of the ancient and 
 the modern world : and if the Duke of Bedford 
 has been roufed to his late exertions by a proud 
 admiration of the conduct of that anceftor who, 
 in the infamous reign of Charles the fecond, 
 fealed his attachment to the principles of liberty 
 with his blood, I rejoice that he had fuch an ex- 
 ample to fet before his eyes; nor is it juftice to 
 fociety to fuffer that example to be forgotten. If 
 his Grace, in defiance of Mr. Burke s admonition *, 
 mould ever condefcend to attend my leclure, 
 (where I have fometimes been honoured with the 
 plaudits of as fine fcholars, as diftinguiihed pa- 
 triots, and almoft as exalted geniufes as my ca- 
 lumniating antagonift) I would endeavour, it is 
 true, to convince him that there is a furer and a 
 better motive of virtuous action: that the love of 
 mankind is better than the pride of anceftry : 
 that it is more noble to enquire how nations and 
 generations can be moft effectually ferved, than 
 what our forefathers did, or what they would 
 have done: and that to be what we ought, is 
 to be fomething more than the moft virtuous 
 anceftor has ever been ! But if mankind are ftill 
 to be eftimatcd, not by individuals, but by families 
 ■ — if the whole race is to be regarded as a body cor- 
 porate, and the living reprefentative to be aceount- 
 
 * Letter, &c. p. 35. 
 
 able 
 
( 46 ) 
 
 able for the actions of the whole, Hill let us pay 
 fome little regard to juftice — let us balance fairly 
 the debtor and the creditor, and fet down the 
 good as well as the bad. 
 
 If this is the way in which we are to proceed, 
 the houfe of RuJJel has nothing to dread in the 
 fettlement of the long account. Let Mr. Burke 
 paint the firft Earl of Bedford in the blacked 
 colours his imagination can fupply — let all that 
 he has afferted pafs unqueftioned, and more, if 
 more can be found, be added to the account; the 
 virtuous refolution of Lord William RuJJel, who, 
 in the full poffeihon of all that youth, and rank, 
 and wealth, paternal pride, and conjugal affeclion 
 could bellow, difdained to preferve his life by 
 ihrinking from his principles, is an ample atone- 
 ment for all. 
 
 But it is not ftrange that Mr. Burke mould be 
 blind, not only to juftice, but to the interefts alfo 
 of the order he profeffes to defend ; for what fo 
 blind as the headlong fury of felfifh and irritable 
 pride ? What fo precipitate as the pamons and 
 refentments of a mind evidently and avowedly 
 uncontrouled by any curb of principle? — which, 
 regardlefs of the unity and immutability of truth, 
 profeffes to fubmit its calculations and conclufions 
 to the fluctuating decifions of intereft, favour, or 
 averfion — and on queftions that relate to " the 
 " theory [and practice] of moral proportions *," 
 
 * Letter, &c. p. 9. 
 
 to 
 
( 47 ) 
 
 toufe "one ftyle to a gracious benefactor; ano- 
 " ther to a proud and infulting foe*?" 
 
 That fuch were the motives and caufes that 
 produced this pamphlet, the pamphlet itfelf has 
 put beyond all queftion and difpute. " Why 
 " will his Grace," it is faid, " by attacking me, force 
 " me reluctantly to compare my little merit with 
 " that which obtained from the crown thofe pro- 
 " digies of profufe donation,-}* " &c. " Let him 
 " remit his rigor on the difproportion between 
 " merit and reward in others, and they will make 
 " no enquiry into the origin of his fortune J!" 
 
 Was ever reftitude of mind more publicly dis- 
 avowed than in this fentence ? Was ever felf- 
 love and refentment fo openly proclaimed para- 
 mount to all principle ? Either the enquiry is 
 right, and ought to require no inducement from 
 perfonal motives; or it is wrong, and no perfonal 
 motive ought to provoke it. But this, I fuppofe, 
 is the gratitude about which Mr. Burke makes 
 fo much parade: — " You do injuftice to man- 
 " kind, that I may reap the benefit of it 3 and 
 " I will do the like injuftice, that the benefit may 
 " be reaped by you!" 
 
 Such is the common traffic of gratitude and private 
 obligation ! Such, according to " the old feci: 
 " in politics and morals," is the fquare rule of 
 virtue ! 
 
 * Letter, &c. p. 10. f Ibid. p. 39. % Ibid. p. 47. 
 
 This 
 
( 43 ) 
 
 This fentiment is ftill more nakedly expref- 
 fed in another place. " Had he permitted me 
 *' to remain in quiet, I mould have faid 'tis his 
 " eftate; that's enough. It is his by law; what 
 " have I to do with its hiftory? He would na- 
 " turally have faid on his fide, 'tis this man's 
 " fortune. — He is as good now, as my anceflor 
 " was two hundred and fifty years ago. I am a 
 " young man with very old penjions ; he is an old man 
 " with very young penjions, — thafs all*! 11 
 
 What is this but faying, in other words, that 
 men of eftate and property, and the nobles of 
 the land in particular.— the hereditary guardians of 
 the rights and properties of the people, are bound in 
 good policy to countenance all the growing pe- 
 culations of corruption ; and, if they refufe to 
 do fo, that the new peculators will turn round upon 
 the old proprietors with all the fury of a dan- 
 gerous and defperate revenge, make the founda- 
 tions of their property, and endeavour to excite 
 againfr. them all the popular odium that may 
 lead to pillage and tumult ! But if thefe paffages 
 reveal the felfijh irritability and lax morality of the 
 writer, what fnall we fay to the fentiment expofed 
 in the enfuing? — " Since the total body of my 
 " fervices have obtained the acceptance of my 
 " fovereign, it would be abfurd in me to range 
 
 * Letter, S,x. p. 59. 
 
 " mvfelf 
 
( 49 ) 
 
 " myfelf on the fide of the Duke of Bedford and 
 " the London Corref ponding Society*!" 
 
 What, then — are we to underftand that if the 
 total body of his fervices had not been accepted, 
 that is to fay, srewarded by the animating foul of a 
 good penfon, he would have ranged himfelf on 
 the fide of the Duke of Bedford and the London 
 Correfponding Society ? — In other words, are we 
 to underftand that his hoftility to liberty, and 
 the negociation for his peniion, began at the 
 fame time ? 
 
 For the honour of human genius, I would fain 
 hope, in defiance of fo many concurring circum- 
 ftances, and of Mr. Burke's own teftimony, that 
 this is not entirely a correct ftatement of the 
 cafe, and that it is yet pomble to find fome way 
 of accounting for his conduct, without referring 
 every thing to confcious and voluntary corruption. 
 Be this, however, as it may — I truft that the 
 public are not at any lofs to decide which of the 
 important fervices, fo oftentatioufly difplayed in 
 this fplendid farrago of abufe and egotifm, it was 
 that occafioned that " able, vigorous, and well-in- 
 " formed Jlatefman\, Lord Grenville, to have the 
 " goodnefs and condefcenfion" both " to fay" 
 and do fuch " handfome things in his behalf \" I 
 will not enter into the perfonal merits or de- 
 
 * Letter, Sec. p. 59. f Ibid. p. 3. J Ibid. p. 2. 
 
 H merits 
 
( 5° ) 
 
 merits of Mr. Burke, nor into the general quef- 
 tion of the propriety or impropriety of his pen- 
 fion. I leave this enquiry in the hands of older 
 and of better judges. Mr. Burke would, of 
 courfe, object to my " being on the inqueft of his 
 " quantum meruit*" — (may his fate never be in the 
 hand of a lefs candid juror !) He, of courfe, 
 f* cannot recognize in my few" (he cannot, how- 
 ever, add my " idle) years, the competence to judge 
 " of his long and laborious life* 5" and I am 
 certainly as well attached, as he, at this time, finds 
 it convenient to be, " not only to the letter, but 
 u to the fpirit of the old Englifh law of trial by 
 " peers f;" and fhould be forry either to prejudge 
 him by a garbeUed and inflammatory report, fabri- 
 cated in the guilt-concealing cave of fecrecy, to 
 prefent him with a packed jury, or to traverfe 
 his challenges. But Mr. Burke will not himfelf 
 deny that from " the total body of his fervices," it 
 is eafy to fmgle forth the limb or feature whofe 
 grace and attraction won the rich prize of royal — 
 or rather of minifterial favour. Mr. Burke himfelf 
 will not pretend to doubt that, great and important 
 as thofe fervices might be, which he has fo well 
 enumerated, his ec unexampled toil in the fervice 
 " of his country J," his " ceconomical reforms §," 
 his " ftudies of political oeconomy," which he had 
 
 * Letter, &c. p. 9. f Ibid. p. 8. % Ibid. p. 6. 
 § Ibid. p. iS. 
 
 purfued 
 
( 5' ) 
 
 purfued " from his very early youth," and by 
 which " thehoufe" [of commons] " has profitted" 
 fo much, " for above eight and twenty years*," 
 together with all that " preparation and difcipline 
 " to political warfare," by which he " had earned 
 " his penfion before he fet his foot in Saint Ste- 
 " phen's chapel f," all, all would have been neg- 
 lected and forgotten, but for his conduct with 
 refpect to the French Revolution. All that he 
 " did, and all that he prevented from being 
 " donej," even at that time (1780), when "wild 
 " and favage infurre6tion quitted the woods, and 
 " prowled about the ftreets in the name of re- 
 " form%" and " a fort of national convention" (of 
 which his new friend Mr. Pitt now, perhaps, re- 
 collects that he was a member) "nofing parliament 
 " in the very feat of its authority ||," threatened 
 England u with the honour of leading up the 
 " death-dance of democratic revolution! *|J" all, 
 all would have lain in thanklefs oblivion — even 
 the eternal impeachment, " on which (of all his fer- 
 " vices) he values himfelf the moft**," would 
 have failed to influence " minifters to confider 
 "his fituation •]*•(-," if it had not been for the 
 zeal and ardour with which he founded the 
 trumpet of alarm againft the ideal danger of 
 
 * Letter, &c. p. 28. \ Ibid. p. 27. % Ibid. p. 23. 
 
 § Ibid. p. 13. || Ibid. p. 14. % Ibid. p. 13. ** Ibid. p. 27. 
 
 ff Ibid. p. 6. 
 
 H 2 " rude 
 
( 5* ) 
 
 " rude inroads of Gallic tumult* " called up, 
 with his hideous yells, the hell-born fiend of po- 
 litical perfecution, and, turning the houfe of 
 commons into a mountebank's ftage, dagger- 
 ftruck every imagination, and plunged his country 
 — plunged all Europe, into the moft frantic, the 
 moft terrible, the moft defolating war, that ever 
 fcourged the univerfe! 
 
 This was the crown of all his labours — " the 
 " Corinthian capital," that gave the nnilhing 
 grace to the temple of public utility his life had 
 been fpent in rearing. But for this " the four and 
 " a half per cents had been kept full in his eye f" 
 (c in vain. He might have enjoj ed, it is true, in 
 vifta, the profpecr of this trophy of " the cecono- 
 " my of feleclion and proportion J," but never 
 would he have beheld the minifter entering the 
 porch to confecrate the fpoils and offerings at his 
 ihrine. 
 
 If I were not impatient to enter into more 
 important matter, and unwilling to extend too far 
 the limits of this pamphlet, I would fain make fome 
 few animadverfions upon thefe four and a half 
 per cents. I would fain enquire into the grounds 
 of that exultation with which Mr. Burke com- 
 pares the funds and fources of his penfion, with 
 thofe that adminiftered to the exaltation of the 
 houfe of Ruflel. I would fain enquire whether 
 
 * Letter, &c. p. 54. f Ibid. p. 25. J Ibid. 33. 
 
 it 
 
( 53 ) 
 
 it be more vicious to enrich onefelf with the 
 plunder of dormitories, and by the extermination 
 of flothful, juggling, monks (who, like devouring 
 locufts, prey on the green leaf of ufeful induitry, 
 and blight its hopeful fruitage in the bud) or 
 even with the confifcations of attainted nobles, 
 the defcendants, according to Mr. Burke, of former 
 "jackalls in waiting" — for the argument holds 
 equally true ad infinitum ; or to draw the means of 
 luxury and profufion from taxes extorted from 
 the hard-earned pittance of the labourer, and 
 thereby to make the fpare meal of poverty ftill 
 more fcanty and comfortlefs. Mr. Burke has 
 quibbles and fophiftries, and his friend, Mr. 
 Windham, has metaphyseal fubtilities, I make no 
 doubt, to repel this charge ; but if I had time to 
 pufli the queftion home, I could prove, by calcu- 
 lations as incontrovertible as any in the minifter's 
 arithmetic, that every penfion that rewards the 
 bafenefs of political apoftacy, (trips the wretched 
 family of the peafant and the manufacturer of a 
 portion of their fcanty bread. 
 
 Mr. Burke may therefore congratulate himfelf, 
 as much as he pleafes, upon the " fpontaneous 
 " bounty" of " the Royal Donor," and " the 
 * f goodnefs and condefcenfion" of " his minif- 
 fi ters*;" but his penfion is, in reality, a beggar's 
 
 * Letter, &c. p. arm 2. 
 
 can, 
 
( 54 ) 
 
 cap, thrown by the way fide, to receive the 
 farthing of the pooreft paffenger; while, to ag- 
 gravate the difgrace, taxation, like the crippled 
 foldier in Gil B/as, refts its blunderbufs upon the 
 ftile, and converts the pretended "charity*" into 
 an a£t of plunder. 
 
 But my pamphlet is fwelling beyond its in- 
 tended proportion; and I muft haften to more 
 important matter. I leave, therefore, all confider- 
 ation of the general merits of the penfioner, all 
 comparifon of the proportion between the fer- 
 vices and the reward ; and all enquiry into the 
 operation of the penfion, that I may examine the 
 particular conduct without which all his other 
 fervices would have been of no avail ; and canvas 
 the principles upon which that conduct was pro- 
 feffedly built. 
 
 " If I am unworthy," fays the pamphlet, " the mi- 
 " nifters are worfe than prodigalf:" and if with re- 
 fpect to French affairs his conduct has been inconfif- 
 tent with juftice, policy, and the fecurity and hap- 
 pinefs of mankind, the greater his former fervices, 
 the more criminal thofe minifters muft appear: 
 for the fyftem indeed muft be rotten to the core, 
 when a life of honourable fervice can only obtain 
 its reward by an old age of depredation and 
 mifchief. 
 
 * Letter, &c. p. 33. f Ibid. p. 7. 
 
 Mr. 
 
( 55 I 
 
 Mr. Burke, it is true, modeftly declines " the high 
 •' diftintlion," and" the glory" of being confidered 
 as the exclufive " author of the war* ;" and as 
 I am not at all defirous of removing refponjibility 
 from the moulders where the conftitution has 
 placed it, I am ready to exonerate him from the 
 charge. I believe that the miniftcrs of this 
 country had refolved, from the firft dawn of the 
 Revolution in France, to feize the earlieft opportu- 
 nity of attacking that nation. I believe, that but 
 for the minifters of this country, the profligate 
 and fatal treaty of Pilnitz never would have been 
 figned; France and the Empire would not have 
 been embroiled in war; the exceffes which have 
 difgraced the greatefl and moft glorious event in 
 the annals of mankind, would never have been 
 perpetrated ; and that Louis XVI. might, perhaps, 
 to this day have continued " King of the French." 
 I believe, alfo, that if no fuch man as Mr. Burke 
 had been in exiflence, Mr. Pitt — or more properly 
 fpeaking, Lord Hawkefbury, would neverthelefs 
 have plunged us into this unhappy conteft. Mr. 
 Burke and his dagger were therefore only inftru- 
 ments (powerful inftruments, however,) in ex- 
 citing that terror and alarm, which gave, among 
 certain claffes at leaft, a degree of popularity to 
 the meafure, without which the minifter would 
 
 * Letter, &c. p. 79. 
 
 have 
 
( 50 ) 
 
 have found it difficult to fulfil his continental en* 
 gagements ! 
 
 It was Mr. Burke who affifted him, in this em- 
 barraffment, by founding the tocfin of alarm, and 
 creating a real danger by proclaiming one that 
 was imaginary. It was Mr. Burke who made 
 himfelf cryer to the new inquifition, and pre- 
 pared the way for the Reevefes, the Devaynefes y 
 and the Idefons, whofe departmental Star Chambers, 
 and Revolutionary Committees*, have polluted the 
 ftream of administrative juftice, and debafed the 
 character of the nation. He it was that, like a 
 political dog-ftar, (hook " from his horrid hair" 
 diftemper and delirium ; till the brain-fever of 
 property maddened the whole land j and great 
 bankers and wealthy merchants, furrounded by 
 their clerks and dependants, (the myrmidons 
 of the ware-room and counting-houfe) turned 
 
 * This phrafe may found rather harflily in the ears of loyal 
 affociators ! but it mould be remembered, that there are revo- 
 lutions againft liberty, as well as revolutions for it: revolutions 
 made by governors againft the people, as well as revolutions 
 made by the people againft the government. The latter of 
 thefe have always, I believe, proceeded from neceflity ; been 
 actuated, in the firft inftance, by right principles ; and been 
 productive of ultimate good. The former have as uniformly 
 refulted from the ambition, rapacity, and tyranny of wicked 
 counfellors, and have been productive of oppreffion and mife- 
 ry, and generally of ultimate revolt! Thefe revolutions are, in 
 reality, the caufes, and the juftifkations of the other. — But of 
 this more in the text. 
 
 Merchant 
 
( 57 ) 
 Merchant Taylor's Hall into a bear garden ; put 
 Billingfgate and Bedlam to the blufli by their 
 difgraceful, and outrageous conduft; and thus 
 prefented us with a modern illuftration of that 
 profound and indubitable remark of Machiavel, 
 that " tumults and disturbances are more 
 " frequently created by the wealthy and power- 
 ful, than by the poorer clafles of fociety*." 
 
 In 
 
 * See that invaluable work " Difcourfes on the firfl 
 « decade of Titus Livius." Verfions of this neglefted book, 
 both in French and in EngUJh, are to be met with upon almoft 
 every ftall: and my readers cannot do better than tranfplant 
 it, and, indeed, the whole of this author's works, into their 
 libraries. The doarine above quoted, will be found at fome 
 length in book i. c. 5. 
 
 Some, perhaps, may think that I have treated this « re- 
 " fpe&able body of men !" rather too harfhly in this pafTage: 
 but the turbulent yells, the grinning diftortions of im- 
 paflioned countenance, the joftlings, and perfonal violence, 
 with which every individual was aflailed who attempted to 
 oppofe their refolutions, cannot but live in the memory of 
 all who were prefent at that meeting. The outrageous 'and 
 aflaffin-hke attack made by a part of this re/jtedable body 
 upon Mr. Favel, as he was departing from the hall, fixes a 
 ftain of a deeper dye, and would furnifh fome colour, at leaf! 
 to the arguments of thofe who might wifh to perfuade us that 
 the boafted police of this country, is not fo much intended 
 to preferve the peace, and protect the perfons of the people 
 as to enforce a blind and abjeft fubmiffion to the will of the 
 governing party! The conduct of thefe fame re/kedaUe 
 gentlemen at Grocer's Hall was, I underftand, ftill more out- 
 rageous. Let any perfon compare thefe facls with the tran- 
 quil, 
 I 
 
( 53 ) 
 In fhort, it was Mr. Burke who condefcendcd to 
 be the "jackal," not of a Son, but of an ape, who, 
 having run through all the tricks and metamor- 
 phofes of apoftacy, determined, at lair, to become 
 a beaft of prey, though he had neither the 
 courage, nor the fagacity, to ftart his own 
 game. 
 
 His new ally, however, caught up the fcent 
 with all imaginable keennefs. No fooner did the 
 troubles in France make their appearance, than 
 he began to beat the war-provoking hide ot 
 " old John Zifca*" and call out for carnage and 
 blood.— Like Collins 's perfonification of Anger, 
 forth 
 
 " he rufhed : his eves on fire 
 
 " In lightnings own his fecret flings !" 
 
 and, this too, at a time when every thing in that 
 country was going on fo humanely, fo philofo- 
 phically, fo benevolently, that every generous 
 heart in Europe fympathifed with the triumphs 
 
 quil, firm, and orderly proceedings of the immenfe multitudes 
 ot common JieoJtlezfembXzA at Chalk Farm, Copenhagen Houje 
 and Mary-le-bone Fields— the regularity with which they tranl- 
 atfed their bufinefs, and the peaceable manner in which they 
 difperfed, as foon as it was over ; let them add to this, an atten- 
 tive examination of the behaviour of the plebeians and oHhe 
 patrician order, in what are called the feJitumsct ancient 
 Rome, and then let them draw what arguments they can in 
 favour of the maxims and fyftem of the prefeat aarmm- 
 
 ftration. 
 
 * Letter, &c p. 3. 
 
 of 
 
( 59 ) 
 
 of Gallic liberty; and mankind began to lofe 
 their nationality, and nobles their prejudices, in 
 the unbounded admiration of an event that pro- 
 mifed a fpeedy extinction of thofe fyftems of 
 devaftation and ambition, which have hitherto 
 been the greateft fcourges of the univerfe. 
 
 It is in vain that Mr. Burke now raves about 
 mafTacres, and fanguinary executions. It is in 
 vain, that he difgufls our imaginations with tedi- 
 ous rhapfooies aDout " foul and ravenous birds 
 " of prey- — obfeene revolutionary harpies, fprung 
 " from night and hell, or from that chaotic 
 " anarchy which generates equivocally all 
 " monftrous, all prodigious things*!" At the 
 time when his firft wild and frantic publi- 
 cation on this fubjeel: miniftered to the infidious 
 defigns of his pre fen t patrons, no excefTes 
 had taken place which could juftify his abufe, 
 or afford the leaf! colour for regarding the 
 French revolutionifts as maniacs " who thought 
 " The whole duty of man confifted in deftruftionf." 
 The revolution was then in the hands of " philo- 
 " fophers," and "literary men J !" It had not yet 
 fallen (as afterwards, from the unprincipled in- 
 terference of foreign defpots, and the ftill more 
 fatal influence of foreign gold, fcattered among 
 emiflaries " in the night cellars of Paris" to 
 
 * Letter, Sec. p. 21. f Ibid. p. §7, 1 Ibid. p. 57. 
 I 2 hire 
 
( 6° ) 
 
 hire intrigue, and provoke infurre£tion, it did 
 moft undoubtedly fall) under the management 
 of " bravoes and banditti" — of " robbers and 
 ° arTaffins." If his declamations againft the 
 changes that have taken place in that country, 
 had never been heard till the fyftem " of pillage, 
 <c oppreffion, arbitrary imprifonment, confiscation, 
 " exile, revolutionary judgment, and legalized 
 "premeditated murder*" had been adopted 3 and 
 thofe declamations had been abandoned when 
 the cruelty and wickednefs of this fyftem were 
 relinquiihed, he might have claimed fome credit, 
 perhaps, for his humanity; and have laid lefs 
 open to the fufpicion of a grounded abhorrence 
 to every principle of liberty. Even then, how- 
 ever, we muft have pitied the confufion of intel- 
 lect that could not feparate principles from un- 
 principled actions; and continue to revere the 
 fentiments of truth and juftice, however they 
 might be violated by their profeflbrs: or rather 
 by individuals of the country in which they were 
 profefled. 
 
 But it is the profeffion and occupation of this 
 fingular writer, to confound all diftin£tions by 
 affected antithejis ; to deftroy all unities of time, 
 place, and acfion, for the purpofes of mifrepre- 
 fentation; to bewilder the underftandings of his 
 
 * Letter, &c. p. 64. 
 
 readers 
 
( 6i ) 
 
 readers by incongruous mixtures of fact and 
 fiction, and to build his conclufions upon artful 
 tranfpofitions, that unite things together which 
 have no conne&ion, and make caufes the confe- 
 quences of their own effects. His mode of analyfis 
 is to break down the whole feries of events into one 
 chaotic mafs; and then, felecling fuch parts as are 
 belt fuited to his purpofe, and arranging them ac- 
 cording to his own arbitrary fancy, to draw conclu- 
 fions that contradict all the facts of hiftory, and all 
 the dictates of unfophifticated reafon. Thus, for 
 example, the French Revolution having at dif- 
 ferent periods, and under different circumflances, 
 brought into action, upon the political theatre, 
 fome of the moft enlightened philofophers that 
 ever adorned, and fome of the fiercer!: cannibals 
 that have difgraced, the modern world, Mr. 
 Burke, that every thing French, and every thing 
 revolutionary, may be brought into abhorrence at 
 once, confounds the two claffes together under the 
 denomination " of the Cannibal Philofophers of 
 France*;" and exclaims, with affected aftonifh- 
 ment, " In the French Revolution every thing is 
 " new ; and from want of preparation to meet fo 
 " unlooked for an evil, every thing is dangerous. 
 " Never, before this time, was a fet of literary 
 " men converted into a gang of robbers and 
 
 * Letter, Sec. p. 56, 59. 
 
 " affaffins. 
 
( 62 ) 
 
 ,c afTamns. Never before, did a den of bravoes 
 " and banditti, afiume the garb and tone of an 
 "academy of philofophers*." 
 
 Never before ! No, nor now. The author of 
 " Reflections on the French Revolution," and 
 the author of the " Rights of Man," are not more 
 diftin£t — the fentiments of Edmund Burke on the 
 American war, and the fentiments of Edmund 
 Burke on the prefent crufade, are not more oppo- 
 fite than the men and the motives he has thus 
 confounded together. They were men, not only 
 diftinct, but in pofitive oppofition. As well 
 might the till iate unheard-of maxims of defpo- 
 tifm, faid to have been delivered by the Bifhop 
 of Rockefter and Lord Loughborough, be attributed 
 by future hiftprians to the Earl of Lauderdale, 
 by whom they were fo fpiritedly and fo properly 
 expofedt! — as well might Thomas Paine be re- 
 proached with the virulent and unprincipled 
 malignancy of ftigmatifing the oppreffed, la- 
 borious, and moll: valuable claffes of fociety as 
 a " fwinifh multitude," becaufe he lived and 
 wrote in the fame age with the being who out- 
 raged humanity with fuch fcurrility, as the 
 crimes of Robefpierre, of Couthon, and of Marat, 
 of the attorney general Fouquiere, and the 
 hangman Le Bone, be charged to the account of 
 
 * Letter, Sec. p. 5;. 
 , f Debates on Lord Grenville's new treafon bill. 
 
 the 
 
( 63 ) 
 
 the Condor cets, the Ifnards, the Rochefoucaults, and 
 the Rolands, who were the viclims, not the authors, 
 of the crimes which we deplore. 
 
 That the philofophers of France were too cold, 
 too fpeculative, too flow and cautious, to have 
 faved their country, in the defperate condition 
 into which they were plunged by the coalition 
 of German defpots, and the intrigues and corrup- 
 tion of courts pretending neutrality — that they had 
 too little of the energy of men of bufinefs for the 
 flormy times they had to fleer through, and that 
 the profligate and deteftable proclamation of the 
 Duke of Brunfwick, (the true proximate caufe of all 
 the maflacres and horrors in France), required 
 other antidotes than fine-fpun theories and fpecu- 
 lations, however juft and excellent, I am ready 
 to admit: nor fliall I be backward in ftigma- 
 tifing with juft epithets of abhorrence, the fe- 
 rocious barbarity, the enormous, and almoft un- 
 paralleled cruelty (I fay almojl — for I have not 
 forgotten Ifmael and Warjazvl) with which the 
 more energetic party abufed their power! But 
 if it was the misfortune of France, that her philo- 
 fophers were deficient in the powerful energies 
 of manhood*, and her energetic characters defti- 
 
 tute 
 
 * " France," fays Madam Roland, " was in a manner def- 
 " titute of men. Their fcarcity has been truely furprifing in 
 " this revolution, in which fcarcely any thing but pigmies have 
 
 " appeared. 
 
I 64 ) 
 
 tute of the humaniling temperament of philofo- 
 phy, furely it is not therefore juft, to attribute to 
 the former the favage ferocity that deformed 
 the latter ; or, by confounding them together, to 
 involve the whole in one indifcriminating cen- 
 fure, and endeavour to bring all fcience and phi- 
 lofophy into difgrace, and reprefent " knowledge" 
 itfelf as " rendered worfe than ignorance, by the 
 " enormous evils of this dreadful innovation f." 
 Still lefs will it be admiffible, to attribute the 
 mifchiefs that fprung from thefe unfortunate com- 
 binations of circumftances to the principles of 
 
 the 
 
 " appeared. I do not mean, however, that there was any 
 " want of wit, of knowledge, of learning, of accomplifh- 
 " ments, or of philofophy. Thefe ingredients, on the con- 
 " trary, were never fo common : — but as to that firmnefs of 
 " mind) which J. J. RofTeau has fo well defined, by calling it 
 " thefirji attribute of a hero, fupported by that foundnefs ofjudg- 
 * { ment, which knows how to fet a true value upon things, and 
 " by thofe extenfive views which penetrate into futurity, altoge- 
 " ther conftituting the character of a great man, they were 
 " fought for everywhere, and were fcarcely any where to be 
 " found." Thefe obfervations difplay at once great pene- 
 tration and great prejudice in this extraordinary woman. 
 The latter prevented her from looking for real greatnefs 
 of mind beyond the boundaries of her own party ; but the for- 
 mer compelled her to acknowledge, that within this pale it was 
 not to be found. The qualities, however, of which the Gi- 
 rondijis w r ere fo obvioufly deficient, were moft eminently pof- 
 fefTed by feveral of the Mountain party, and by Danton, in par- 
 ticular, perhaps in as high a degree as by any individual 
 whofe " name is deftined to live in the pantheon of hiftorv." 
 
 * Letter. &c. p. 21, 
 
( 65 ) 
 
 the revolution, if it can be proved (and the proof 
 I think, would not be difficult), that the imbecility 
 of the philofiphic, and the ferocity of the energetic party, 
 had their remote caufes alike in the vices and cruelties 
 of the old defpotifm. 
 
 Is Mr. Burke really fo ignorant, or does he pre- 
 fume fo far upon the ignorance of his fellow citi- 
 zens—upon the « ftupefaaion of the dull Englifh 
 « undemanding*," as to pretend that the philofo 
 pliers and the Septembrizers of France were the 
 fame perfonsj-that the promulgators of the hu- 
 mane, the incontrovertible, the glorious principles 
 that breathed through the fpeeches and declara- 
 tions of the National Affembly, and enlarged, at 
 once, the boundaries of fcience and philanthropy, 
 were alfo the perpetrators of thofe horrid mafla- 
 cres, and ftill more horrible executions, by which 
 all principles, all humanity, all juftice, were fo 
 outrageoufly violated? Reafon, at once, revolts 
 at fuch a conclufion. But, fortunately, this 
 argument, fo important to the human race, does 
 no & t reft upon the conclufiohs of fpeculative rea- 
 fon. Faft— -ftrong, ftubbom, incontrovertible 
 faa (fo hateful to the juggling philofophers of the 
 old feci) ftares us in the face fo openly, that one 
 knows not how fufficiently to admire the confi- 
 dence of the man who could fo grofsly mifrepre- 
 
 * Letter, Sec. p. 63. 
 
 K fent 
 
( 66 ) 
 
 fent events and affairs of yejierday, or the fupinenefs 
 and voluntary ignorance of thofe whom fuch mif- 
 reprefentations could deceive ! 
 
 Who are the philofophers and metaphyficians 
 of France, whofe fubtile theories of humanity, 
 and refinements of univerfal philanthropy, have 
 been fo mixed and confounded with cold barba- 
 rity, or favage ferocity, as to juftify this favourite 
 Claudian figure of rhetoric — " cannibal philofo- 
 " phy," with which we are fo frequently indulged? 
 Which of the metaphyficians of France has been "rea- 
 cc dy to declare," either by word or a6tion, " that 
 " he did not think a prorogation of humanity for 
 " two thoufand years, too long a period for the 
 " good he purfued? — or that his imagination was 
 " not fatigued with the contemplation of human 
 " fuffering, through the wild wafte of centuries, 
 " added to centuries of mifery and defolation*?" 
 
 I could point out, with infinite facility, cer- 
 tain Englifli metaphyficians^, who go much beyond all 
 this; whofe "humanity," (and whofe liberty alfo) 
 may be truely confidered as " at their horizon ; 
 " and like the horizon, always to fly before 
 " them*:" who would put Liberty to feep, that 
 Jhe might be able (when they thought it 
 convenient) to open her eyes — preferve the 
 freedom of the Conftitution, by eftablifhing 
 defpotifm upon its ruins; {hew their hatred 
 
 * Letter, &c. p. 62. 
 
 of 
 
( «7 ) 
 
 of violence, by inceflant appeals to military 
 coercion ; their love of juftice, by fanguinary 
 perfecutions iniquitoufly legal; and their hu- 
 manity, by a confpiracy to ftarve twenty-four 
 millions of people : and who, fo far from being 
 " fatigued with the contemplation of human fuf- 
 " fering, through the wide wafte of centuries, 
 u added to centuries of mifery and defolation," 
 wifh for eternal war — eternal maflacre, pillage, 
 and defolation ; — pronounce, that peace with re- 
 gicides never muft be made*; and feem to wifh, 
 that when their tongues can no longer call for 
 blood and carnage, " their Jkins may be made 
 " into drums, to animate Europe to eternal 
 " battlef." 
 
 It is eafy alfo to point out metaphyficians in 
 this country, who anfwer too well fome other 
 of Mr. -5/o-^Vdefcriptions — who " with {their fo- 
 " phiftical Rights" (not " of man" it is true, but) of 
 rotten-boroughmongers , " to falfity the account, and 
 " the fword § as a make weight to throw into the 
 " fcale," profefs to have armed one part of their 
 fellow citizens for the fubjugation of another; and 
 protect the freedom of fenatorian debate, by 
 threatening to anfwer the arguments of their op- 
 ponents with the fab res of a praetorian cavalry. 
 
 * Letter, Sec. p. 80. f Ibid. p. 3. % Ibid. p. 54. 
 § See debates on Colonel M'Leod's motion on the fub- 
 jeft of the Fencible Cavalry. 
 
 K. 2 How 
 
( 68 ) 
 
 How gracefully appeals to humanity and vir 
 tue come from fuch lips as thefe! How fit and 
 appropriate to fuch men, the moral indignation 
 which burfts forth in reproaches of Barbariftn and 
 Cannibal Philofophy I 
 
 I wifh not to degenerate from argument to 
 abufe. I truft I have conducted myfelf through- 
 out thefe ftrictures with a temper and mode- 
 ration which will mew, at leaft, that Sans 
 Cidottifm, in its true fignification*, is not incon- 
 fiftent with the urbanity and mildnefs of poliihed 
 life ; and I mould be forry, towards the clofe of 
 my labours, to forfeit a character fo eiTential 
 to public utility: but if hard words muft be 
 ufed — if our adverfaries, in defect of argument, 
 will appeal to abufe, can it be helped if the ill 
 directed ball rebounds ? and may it not be ad- 
 miffible, fo far, to retort upon them, their unci- 
 tizen-like (or, in their own language, ungentleman- 
 like) epithets, as to afk them, whether thefe are 
 not the real literary afTaiiins — the real philofophi- 
 cal banditti, and metaphyseal bravoes, from 
 whofe example they have derived thofe extravagant 
 and incongruous definitions which, by a ftrange 
 jumble of characters and events, they endeavour, 
 
 * I beg leave to quote from the earlieft of my political 
 works, my own definition of a Sans Culotte. — " An advocate 
 " for the rights and happinefs of thofe who are languifhing in 
 ** want and nakednefs." Pol, Left. p. 26. 
 
 in 
 
( h ) 
 
 in their virulent rhapfodies, to apply to the 
 philofophers and literary men of France? — But the 
 jaundiced eye of prejudice fees every thing difco- 
 loured, and knows not that the diftemper exifts in 
 itfelf. 
 
 I mean not to deny that crimes and exceffes 
 have been perpetrated in France. Deeds have 
 been done " at which the face of heaven glows 
 " with horror!" But let not Mr. Burke hide the 
 deformity of his own caufe in this black cloud of 
 indifcriminate abufe. Let him bring forth his 
 lifts of philofophical banditti and affaflins; and 
 let us fee this pretended connection between the 
 metaphyfics " of the new feci ," and the crimes that 
 have torn that fometime diftra&ed country, or 
 his attack upon French principles muft fall to 
 the ground. If the exceffes cannot be proved, 
 either logically or experimentally, to have been 
 connected with the principles, coincidence of time 
 is nothing to the purpofe, and the one cannot be 
 faid to have produced the other. Now if the 
 principles did not produce the exceffes, the ex- 
 ceffes muft have been produced by fomething 
 elfe: and nothing can be more illogical than to 
 condemn any fet of principles on account of 
 confequences that never refulted from them. 
 
 It matters not, I repeat it, that the principles 
 were propounded, and the exceffes committed 
 nearly about the fame time. If a philofopher and 
 an affaflin happen to take fhelter at the fame inn, 
 
 is 
 
( 70 ) 
 
 is the philofopher therefore a cut-throat, and the 
 afTaffin a metaphyfician? But Mr. Burke's way of 
 arguing is ftill more inconfiftent and unjuft. — 
 A banditti of ruffians, or " cannibals," if he 
 pleafes (for I can find no epithet too ftrong for 
 their crimes) having broken in upon a company 
 of philofophers, who were teaching the principles 
 of juftice and philanthropy to a throng of newly 
 emancipated flaves, they killed and devoured the 
 greater part of them, and then began to fall 
 upon the pupils : and for this reafon, and for no 
 other, (unlefs it be that the philofophers had 
 affifted the throng in efcaping from the tyranny 
 of their matters) this acute logician confounds 
 together, the devourers and the devoured; and 
 becaufe one party were philofophers and the 
 other cannibals, calls them a fet of cannibal 
 philofophers. 
 
 Is not this, I demand, a fair ftatement of the 
 cafe? Confider, I conjure you, my fellow citizens, 
 for the queftion is well worthy of ferious exami- 
 nation; and it is time we laid afide our animofi- 
 ties and our heats, and examined it with temper 
 and moderation. The mifreprefentations that 
 have too long inflamed our minds " are not 
 " wholly without an object*!" While we are 
 waging war with Gallic Liberty, we are lofmg 
 our own. Corruption has been long availing us 
 
 * Letter, &c. p. 4, 
 
 on 
 
( 7i ) 
 
 on every fide; and though her (hafts may have 
 been fteeped in anodynes to prevent the prefent 
 fmart, the wounds are, for that very reafon, the 
 more dangerous. Defpotifm is now approach- 
 ing with gigantic ftrides; and, diftra&ed and 
 alarmed by a thoufand incoherent terrors, we are 
 finking, for fhelter, into the vale of abjea fub- 
 miffion. But let us diffipate, in good time, 
 thefe vifionary delufions,— thefe vapours of the 
 drowfy brain; left, when awakened at laft upon 
 the extreme verge of deftruaion, we mould be 
 obliged to return by that uphill path whofe 
 rugged acclivities have occafioned fo many ftrains 
 and bruifes to our unhappy neighbour. 
 
 " Awake! arife! or be for ever fallen ! ! /" 
 
 Be not deluded by idle rhapfodies and arbitrary 
 combinations. Exceffes and cruelties are not 
 forms of government. Aaions are not principles 
 -either old or new. Philofophy is not a cannibal; 
 nor can a cannibal be a philofopher! The new 
 principles of France, as they are called, are good in 
 themfelves:-the principles of equal rights, and 
 equal laws. They are, in faft, the oldefl principles 
 in the world: the principles upon which the wifeft 
 and happieft governments of antiquity were found- 
 ed: expanded and improved, it is true, but not 
 fundamentally altered, by the wifdom derived from 
 the improved ftate of human fociety— the wider 
 
 diffulion 
 
( ** ) 
 
 diffufionof intelleaual acquirement—and the more 
 general intercourfe of mankind. 
 ' Thefe principles, I repeat it, in themfelves are 
 <rood. If our antagonifts are ferioufly of a dif- 
 ferent opinion, why do they not examine them, 
 without mifreprefentation or abufe, on the fimple 
 foundation of their own merits or defeas? Why 
 confound them with other things? Why pre- 
 tend to difcufs principles, and talk of nothing, 
 in reality, but the aaions of unprincipled men? 
 Is time unfteady, becaufe my watch goes wrong? 
 Is it not noon when the fun is in the meridian, 
 becaufe the parifh dial is out of repair? Can 
 principles, which are the fun of the intelleaual 
 univerfe, be changed in their nature or their 
 courfe by the vile aaions of a few ruffians ? Prove 
 to me, bydifpaffionate argument, that the principles 
 of the French Revolution are falfe and pernicious, 
 and I will relinquifh them at once, and thank you 
 for delivering me from my errors. But while my 
 reafon tells me that they are confonant in them- 
 felves with truth and juftice, it is not calling them 
 French principles— it is not calling them new lights 
 —it is not the hoary prejudice of fix thouf and years— 
 it is not calling me Jacobin, nor calling others 
 cannibal philofophers--it is not talking of the " ig- 
 « norant flippancy*" of a man whom the learned 
 folidityof colleges and confiftories have never been 
 
 * Letter, &c. p. 77- , , 
 
 able 
 
( 73 ) 
 
 able to anfwer — it is not all the declamatory bit- 
 ternefs of Burke, the metaphyseal frenzy of 
 Windham, the fanguinary rage of Pitt, nor the 
 long-winded fophilirv of Scott and Mitford, mall 
 compel me to relinquish thefe important truths: 
 — no ; not though it could be proved that the 
 crimes of Marat and Robefpierre furpafled the 
 favage wickednefs of the fiend Zuwarrozv, and the 
 ferocity of Croats and Hulans. 
 
 Marat and Robefpierre were no more to be re- 
 garded as integral parts of the new principles of 
 France, than Pitt and Dundas as parts of the old 
 principles of England; or than the fire of London 
 as having been a part of the river Thames, be- 
 caufe its waves were blackened by the rubbifh of 
 falling houfes, and the blazing rafters floated 
 along the ftream. The rafters and the rubbifh 
 were fwept into the fea, and the Thames regained 
 its wonted clearnefs: Marat and Robefpierre are 
 fwallowed up in the ocean of eternity, and the 
 new principles of France remain ; and if Pitt and 
 Dundas were to die of a furfeit, after a Wimbledon 
 dinner, I do not believe, for my own part, that 
 our liberties would be lefs fecure 
 
 As men are not principles, fo neither are par- 
 ticular actions. Mr. Burke might as well con- 
 tend, that barracks and fubfidized mercenaries, 
 and the Jhort memory of a minilter on a trial of 
 life and death, are the Britilh conftitution, as that 
 
 L the 
 
( 74 ) 
 
 the tyranny of Robefpierre was the new French 
 fyftem of philofophy and politics. To come 
 ftill clofer to the point, it were as rational to 
 affirm, that the maffacres of Glencoe were the 
 principles of our Glorious Revolution, as that the 
 maffacres of September were the principles of 
 the Revolution of France ! 
 
 That the revolution has had its " harpies *," 
 as deteftable as either Virgil or Mr. Burke has 
 defcribed, who feafted on the general wreck, 
 and were for leaving " nothing unrent, unrifled, 
 " unravaged, or unpolluted*," there can be no 
 doubt : nor is it neceffary, to account for the gene- 
 ration of " thefe foul and ravenous birds of 
 " prey*," to defcend with the poet to the regions 
 which fuperftition has peopled with more than 
 mortal wickednefs ; or to mount with the politi- 
 cal declaimer to the regions of philofophy and 
 metaphyfics. 
 
 What fort of figure Fauquier Tinnanville would 
 have made by the fide of the metaphyfical Sir 
 John Scott, I do not pretend to fay ; but who ever 
 fufpected either Marat, Robefpierre, Le Bon, or an^ 
 of that fanguinary party, of vifionary fubtilties 
 and metaphyfical abftraclion? Which of thofe 
 fine-fpun metaphyfical theories, whofe abitract 
 perfection is fo abhorrent to Mr. Burke's " in- 
 " ftincts," — which of thofe breviaries of funda- 
 
 * Letter, &c. p. 21. 
 
 mental 
 
( 75 ) 
 
 mental principles which commanded the aflent, 
 and excited the admiration of the philofophical 
 world, is attributed to either of thefe men? 
 Robefpierre, it is true, was a member of the Con- 
 ftituent Aflembly; and we find him, at an early 
 period, in pofTefiion of conliderable popularity: 
 but his popularity was not of a defcription to 
 clafs him with thofe fpeculative literati againft 
 whom the politicians of the old feci have con- 
 ceived fuch an inveterate abhorrence. 
 
 However this country may be difpofed to in- 
 dulge its vanity in comparifons, they are not 
 always to our advantage. The French Robef- 
 pierre was no apofiate. There was a certain fteadi- 
 nefs and confiftency in his conducl and character,, 
 which, (together with fome grand traits of fim- 
 plicity and difintereflednefs) even in the midft of 
 abhorrence, compel us to refpeft him. Again, 
 I repeat it, comparifons are not always in our 
 favour: in the character of the French Robefpierre 
 there was nothing to excite our contempt. He 
 had vices — demons of defolation ! bear witnefs, he 
 had vices: but they were not the vices of cor- 
 ruption. He neither maintained himfelf in riot- 
 ous luxury, nor enriched lethargic brothers, and 
 imbecile relations with the plunder of his coun- 
 try, difguifed under the fpecious names of places 
 and pcnfions. He had cruelty too, the thought 
 
 L 2 of 
 
( 7« ) 
 
 of which makes one's flefh creep: but though 
 he iffued a decree to give no quarter to Bri- 
 tons or Hanoverians, found in arms, he never en- 
 tered into a confpiracy to Jlarve twenty-four 
 millions of men, women, and children! — He 
 had virtues too — grand magnificent virtues! for 
 " pure unmixed, dephlegmated, defoecated evil," 
 exifts no where but in the inflamed imagina- 
 tion of Mr. Burke. He was fuperior to all the 
 fordid temptations that debauch the little mind — 
 the allurements of luxury, oftentation, and rapa- 
 city. Surrounded by all the temptations of un- 
 limited power, he lived like a private citizen, 
 and he died a pauper. 
 
 Robefpierre was, however, from th~ firft a man 
 of blood. He was for giving every thing to the 
 people, it is true ; but he was for giving it them 
 not by the cultivation and expanfion of intellect, 
 but by commotion, and violence, and fanguinary 
 revenge: and therefore it was that the revolution- 
 ary movements of Robefpierre, perhaps, in defpite 
 of himfelf, hurried him into the moft infufferable 
 of all tyrannies, inftead of conducting the people 
 to freedom. There can be no freedom in the 
 world but that which has its foundations in the 
 encreafed knowledge and liberality of mankind. 
 Tyranny comes by violence, or by corruption: but 
 Liberty is the gift of Reafon. 
 
 Of 
 
( 77 ) 
 
 Of this important truth the Revolutionary 
 Tyrant feems to have been entirely ignorant: 
 and from this defeft, and the want of perfonal 
 courage, proceeded, I believe, all the errors and 
 all the horrors of his adminiftration. Nay, fo far 
 was he from that metaphyfical abftraaion, which 
 places its confidence in fine fpun theories and 
 bird's-eye fpeculations, that his conduahas given 
 birth to a report, that he cherifhed almoft as 
 inveterate an abhorrence againft philofophers and 
 
 literati, as Mr. Burke and his new friends. 
 
 So far was he from upholding the dangerous 
 herefy of illimitable inquiry, that he would have 
 roafted an atheift at the flake with as much fatis- 
 faclion as the molt pious bifhop of the church. 
 
 During the reign of his defolating tyranny, 
 philofophy was filenced, fcience was profcribed, 
 and daring fpeculation feared no more. France 
 was threatened with midnight ignorance; and 
 in the Club of the Cordeliers, at that time one 
 of the inftruments of his tyranny, a motion 
 was even made to confume the public libra- 
 
 ries. 
 
 Away, then, with thefe mallow pretences for 
 degrading the nobleft exercife of human intellea. 
 Away with this idle jargon of cannibal philofo- 
 phers and literary banditti! So unnatural an 
 alliance never yet was formed; nor ever will. 
 The arTaffins and ruffians of every clime, wheth 
 
 ci- 
 
( 78 ) 
 in the pay of regular or revolutionary tyrannies, 
 have a fort of universal inftinft whifpering to 
 them, that knowledge and oppremon cannot 
 thrive together. 
 
 " If we do not filence the prefs," fays IFoolfey, 
 " the prefs will filence us:' and Robefpierre (a 
 little wifer in this refpect than Eamimd Burke) 
 prohibited, in the jacobin Club, the publication 
 of his own fpeeches; left his intemperance mould 
 provoke difcuinons which his tyranny could not 
 afterwards controul. 
 
 But though the pretences of Mr. Burke for 
 confounding together the philofophy and the crimes 
 of France are thus completely refuted, I do not 
 expert that the ground will be abandoned. It is 
 too important a part of the permanent confpiracy 
 againft the liberties of mankind to be readily 
 given up. Remove but this delufion from the 
 eyes of the people, and the reign of Corruption 
 could not laft— " no, not for a twelvemonth." The 
 principles of liberty are fo confonant to the gene- 
 ral good— the caufe of the rotten borough-mong- 
 ers is fo ^ r fitute of all rational fupport, and the 
 miferies produced by that fyftem are fo numerous, 
 thatnothingbut thegroundlefs terrors fo artfully ex- 
 cited— nothing but the prejudices infpired againft 
 allfpeculationandenquiry,byconfoundingtogether 
 
 things that have no conneaion, could poilibly pre- 
 vent the people of Britain Ihouting from every 
 
 village, 
 
( 79 ) 
 
 village, town, and ftreet, with one unanimous and 
 omnipotent voice — 
 
 "REFORM! REFORM! REFORM!!!" 
 
 0( this the faction in power are iufficiently 
 aware; and therefore it is, that their hatred and 
 perfection are principally directed, not againft 
 the furious and the violent, but againft the en- 
 lightened and humane. Therefore it is, that they 
 endeavour to confound together, by chains of 
 conneaion flighter than the fpider's web, every 
 fanguinary expreflion, every intemperate a&ion 
 of the obfcureft individual whofe mind has be- 
 come diftempered by the calamities of the times, 
 not with the oppreffions and miferies that pro- 
 voke them, but with the honeft and virtuous 
 labours of thofe true Jons of moderation and good 
 order who with to render their fellow citizens 
 firm and manly, that they may have no occafion 
 to be tumultuous and favage; to fpread the folar 
 light of reafon, that they may extinguifh the 
 grofler fires of vengeance; and to produce a 
 timely and temperate reform, as the only means 
 of averting an ultimate revolution. Thefe are 
 the men againft whom the bittereft malice of 
 perfection is direaed. Thefe are the men 
 againft whom every engine of abufe and mifre- 
 prefentation is employed; to calumniate whom 
 their " Briton," and their " Times," and their 
 dirty Grub-ftreet pamphletteers, are penfioned 
 
 out 
 
( So ) 
 
 out of the pubKc plunder — and againft. whom 
 grave fenators from their benches, and -penfioned 
 Cicero s from their literary retreats, are not alham- 
 ed to pour forth their meretricious eloquence, 
 in torrents of defamation, and to exhauft all the 
 fury of inventive (or deluded) malice. Thefe 
 are the men for whofe blood they thirft; and 
 whom they endeavour to deftroy by new doc- 
 trines, not onlv of accumulative and conftrutlive 
 rreafon, but of treafon by Jecond fight : making them 
 accountable for actions they were never confult- 
 ed upon, books they never read, and fentiments 
 they never heard. Thefe, in fhort, are the men 
 for whofe deftruclion laws are perverted, fpies 
 are employed, and perjurers are penfioned: and 
 when all thefe artifices prove inadequate to the 
 end, thefe are the men to ftop whofe mouths bills 
 have been propofed, in parliament, fubverfive ot 
 every principle of the conftitution, left the nation 
 at large ihould be in time convinced that they 
 are not what they have been reprefented: but 
 that the friends of Liberty and Reform, are the true 
 friends of Humanity and Order I 
 
 This would be, indeed, a terrible difcovery 
 for thofe who are fupported by corruption : and 
 in this point of view one cannot blame them for 
 the feleftion they have made of the objects of 
 their perfecuting hatred. To let their vengeance 
 fall at once upon the reallv violent, would be an 
 
 a a 
 
( Si ) 
 
 act of impolicy, that would fliew them " to be 
 " foolith, even above the weight of privilege 
 " allowed to wen 1th*" and power. Were the fe 
 lupprefled (arguing upon their own fuppofition, 
 that persecution can fupprefs) what would be- 
 come of thofe pretences by which, alone, they 
 have rendered the advocates of reform obnoxious 
 to the fears, and confequently to the hatred, of the 
 alarmiils? But if they could deftroy the real re- 
 formers, the men of reafon, of humanity, of in- 
 tellect, they would deftroy the magnets (if I 
 may fo exprefs myfelf) around which, whenever 
 their influence mall become fufficiently diffufed 
 through the intelligent atmofphere, the good 
 fenfe, the fpirit, the virtue of the country, muft be 
 attracted ; and when it is fo attracted, and when 
 the parts fhall firmly and peacefully cohere, and, 
 thus brought under the influence of the true laws 
 of nature, fhall. prefs together, with the united 
 force of attraction and gravitation, to one com- 
 mon centre of truth, the feven days work of crea- 
 tion is complete — the fyftem is reftored to order; 
 and the unruly temped of tyranny and corruption 
 fhall endeavour in vain to prolong " the reign of 
 " chaos and old night:" the planet mall roll on, 
 regardlefs of the ftorm — grace, beauty, fertility, 
 happinefs, lhall flourifh in full luxuriance, and 
 
 * Letter, &c. p. 55. 
 
 M the 
 
( 8. ) 
 
 the meteors of delufion fhall burft and expire. 
 But were this principle deftroyed — were thofe 
 powers of intellect and virtue by which, alone, 
 this grand harmony can be produced, fuppreflfed 
 by the timely interference of fuperior power, and 
 every thing left to the mifguidance of thofe 
 ignes fatai of intemperance and revenge, which, 
 in the night of ignorance, a foul corrupted at- 
 mofphere never fails to ingender, in the low, rank, 
 marlhy fens of vulgar intellect, the friends of 
 liberty would be no longer formidable; but while 
 they floundered about in a thoufand wild direc- 
 tions, deftitute of any common principle, and 
 unconfcious whither they were going, muft pre- 
 fently be fwallowed up in the bogs, and fwamps, 
 and quagmires of their own delufion. 
 
 In fnnpler language, though commotion and 
 violence are the watch-words of alarm, it is the 
 progrefs of reafon — the power of prefiding in- 
 tellect, of which, in reality, the borough-monger- 
 ing oligarchy ftand in dread. This, they are juftly 
 apprehenfive, mav in time diffeminate what they 
 call its infectious influence, fo far as to palfy the very 
 hands of corruption, and caufe the fceptre of their 
 furreptitious authority to fall, by the mere opera- 
 tion of its own weight, from their enfeebled grafp. 
 But as for actual violence — this they can defpife: 
 — this, fome parts of their conduct, and many 
 of their fentiments, would almoft lead one to fuf- 
 
 pecl 
 
( s 3 / 
 
 peel them of being defirous to provoke. Their 
 military, they may fuppofe, would quickly fup- 
 prefs any mfurrcction ; the tumult would afford 
 a convenient opportunity of ridding the country 
 of obnoxious individuals*; and, while the victo- 
 rious fvvord was yet out of the fcabbard, who 
 ■could blame them, if they took the opportunity 
 of organizing a military defpotifm ? But the friends 
 of liberty are aware of this; and their condu6t 
 has proved how little they deferve the calumnies 
 of Mr. Burke, and the minifterial faction. Intem- 
 perate language may fometimes have been ufed, 
 and even received with intemperate applaufe; 
 
 * I underftand that a certain officer, of fome rank in the 
 army, has avowed that inftruclions of this kind have been given: 
 " If any tumult fliould arife," he is reported to have faid, " we 
 " know our game. We fliould not fpend our fury on the rabble" 
 (fuch is the language they ufe towards thofe ufeful members 
 of fociety, whofe induftry fupports and feeds them !) "we fliould 
 " look out for thofe prating rafcals, *******, and make 
 " fure of them, wherever they were to be found." I fhall not 
 infert the names that were placed at the head of this black lift 
 of profcription, for more reafons than one. Suffice it to fay, 
 they were fuch as fully to juftify the above chain of reafoning. 
 They were not men of blood — not men of violence — not men 
 who yelp for tumult or revenge ; who call out for rebellion, 
 or breathe forth flaughter. No — no: — fuch characters are 
 fafe (for the prefent). They are the neft eggs : the hen phea- 
 fants, whom the keen fportfman muft fpare, that they may 
 breed frefli game. Let us hope, however, that this was only 
 gafconade: a military bounce : and that human nature is not 
 yet fo depraved, that fuch inftructions could be either given 
 or accepted. 
 
 M 2 but 
 
( 3 4 ) 
 
 but the voice of rcafon has always been the com- 
 manding voice j nor could the grofTeft infults, 
 nor the molt methodifed attempts of treafury 
 hirelings, police ruffians j", and minifterial fanatics, 
 (for there are fanatics, it fhould be remembered, 
 of all feels) ever throw them into confulion, or 
 provoke them to violence. 
 
 But Mr. Burke would be ill qualified for a 
 champion in behalf of that caufe he has now- 
 undertaken to fupport, if he could not confound 
 together the clear and obvious diftinctions be- 
 tween intellectual rirmnefs and tumultuous vio- 
 lence — the energies of the mind, and the energies 
 of the dagger! Ill would he be calculated to 
 fupport the tottering caufe of oligarchy and cor- 
 ruption, if he could not divert popular atten- 
 tion from the abufes and violence of his own 
 party, by exciting unmerited odium againft all 
 intellect and enquirv, and throwing upon the 
 philofopher and the philanthropist the imputation 
 of thofe crimes which the enemies and perfecutors 
 of thofe characters in reality perpetrate, whether 
 in France or Britain. 
 
 The fophiftries, however, and mifreprefentations 
 of my antagonift end not here. Not only has he 
 confounded together characters and events that 
 
 f For a ftrikifflg illnltration of the propriety of this expref- 
 fion, fee " Narrative of Facts,-'' prefixed to " Political Lectures, 
 vol. I. part i. p. xii. and xiii." 
 
 were 
 
( 85 ) 
 
 were in reality diftin£t---not only lias he charged 
 the crimes of a few ferocious ufurpers upon a 
 whole people, and made the philofophers of 
 France the authors and promoters of that very 
 fyftem of cruelty, in refitting which fo many of 
 them loft their lives; but he has affigned the 
 excerTes and crimes of the revolution altogether to 
 a wrong caufe ; and charged upon republicanifm the 
 guilt of ingendering thofe hideous propenfities — 
 thofe enormous depravities of gigantic wicked- 
 nefs, which nothing but defpotifm ever did, or ever 
 can produce. His talent feems, indeed, to lay 
 quite in this way. In his " Reflections," in 
 defiance of the well-known fact, that the famine, 
 or great f car city of bread, was one of the princi- 
 pal caufes of the revolution, he charged the 
 revolution with having produced that famine. I 
 am not, therefore, furprifed to find him ftill 
 obftinately perfifting in charging all thofe canni- 
 bal difpoiitions upon the Republic, and the 
 Rights of Man, which could not have exifted at 
 all, if the old defpotifm had not generated them ; 
 and which, at any rate, the revolution would only 
 give their proprietors an opportunity of difplay- 
 ittg in deeds of open violence and commotion, 
 inftead of employing them to perpetrate the 
 fecret cruelties and afTaiTinations of the court — 
 in devaftations fanclioned by regular authorities, 
 and opprellions " iniqiutoujly legal 7" 
 
 That 
 
f 86 ) 
 
 That popular commotions call all the vices, as 
 well as the virtues of the community into aclion, 
 cannot be denied. That when " the cauldron of 
 ** civil contention" is boiling over, the fouleft 
 ingredients will fometimes be at the top; and 
 that, in the general fermentation, combinations 
 the moil deleterious will fometimes be formed, 
 no reflecting man has ever yet denied. It is an 
 additional argument why the rulers of the earth 
 mould take care not to render fuch commotions 
 neceffary and inevitable. 
 
 Happy, thrice happy mall it be for thofe princes 
 and governments, who derive a ufeful leffon from 
 the events that have paffed before us! Happy, 
 thrice happy mall it be for thofe wife and 
 moderate rulers, who, in this bufy, changeful, 
 and enquiring age, put not their trufls mjanijja- 
 ries or Swifs Guards ; but, adopting the falutary 
 advice of the great Lord Verulam, fhall illuftrate 
 by their conduct that profound and falutary 
 maxim, that u the fureft way to prevent fedition 
 " is not by fupprefling complaints with too much 
 u feverity, but to take away the matter of them.*" 
 In other words, the beft way to manage the dif- 
 temper, is not to amputate the limb but to remove 
 the caufe. 
 
 * Eflays, Civil and Moral, p. 77. and 80. edition 1 725. Title 
 — Of Seditions and Troubles. Query, Why has Mr. Burke 
 overlooked this efTay ! 
 
 But 
 
( s 7 ) 
 
 But whatever vices and difpofitions the heat of 
 popular commotion may call into action, mult 
 have been generated by former circumftances. 
 Extraordinary exigencies place men in ftrong 
 lights, and mew them fuch as they are : but they 
 do not create' characters of a fudden; nor manu- 
 facture mankind anew. Revolutions are touch- 
 ftoncs for the real difpofitions ; but they do not, 
 like the whifp of a harlequin's fword, change the 
 dove into a tyger, or the tyger into a dove. 
 If, therefore, we were to admit that all the revo- 
 lutionifts — the whole body of the French people, 
 were indifcriminately involved in the guilt of 
 thofe exceffes fo exultingly quoted, and fo wick- 
 edly exaggerated by the foes of liberty—what 
 would be the conclufion? Where would the 
 blame in reality fall, but upon that old fyftem of 
 defpotifm, for the reftoration of which Mr. 
 Burke " would animate Europe to eternal battle." 
 The revolution in France, or more properlv 
 fpeaking, the philofophers and patriots who firft 
 fet the new order of things in motion, did not create 
 their agents. They did not fow the earth (like 
 Cadmus) with dragon's teeth, and reap a harveft 
 of men to carry on their projects. They were 
 obliged to make ufe of the infrruments already 
 made to their hands; and when the game was on 
 foot, the bad as well as the good would have 
 their fliare of the play. If, to refume the allufion, 
 
 a race 
 
( ss ) 
 
 a race of contentious homicides did burit from 
 the ground, and alternately deftroy each other, 
 the feed was fown by the old defpotifm, not by the 
 new philofophy . 
 
 Mr. Burke, indeed, himfelf feems confeious, 
 that the wild and ferocious characters he declaims 
 againft, could not have been formed by the re- 
 volution — he knew that the men whom he Jligmatizes 
 for projecting and forming the Republic, could not 
 have been formed and educated by the Republic. 
 Unwilling, therefore, to aiTign, in plain terms, 
 the generation of the monfters he defcribes to the 
 right caufe, he calls in the aid of poetry, and tells 
 us, that thefe " revolution harpies, fprung from 
 " night and hell, and from chaotic anarchy, 
 " which generates equivocally all monftrous, all 
 tc prodigious things." — True, Mr. Burke, I thank 
 you for the allufion. The revolution harpies did 
 fpring, moft afluredly, rrom what with claflical 
 precifion of metaphor you have called hell, and 
 night, and chaotic anarchy. They fprung, indeed,, 
 from that hell of defpotifm, into the very abyfs 
 of which France had for whole centuries been 
 plunged — They fprung, indeed, from that night 
 of ignorance in which the beft faculties of the 
 human mind had been fo long enveloped and ex- 
 tinguiihed — They fprung, indeed, from that chao- 
 tic anarchy of vice, licentioufnefs, profligate lux- 
 ury, and unprincipled debauchery, into which 
 
 the 
 
( s 9 ) 
 
 the morals of the country had been thrown by 
 the influence and example of the court, and 
 which, it is rightly faid, generates equivocally all 
 monjlrous, all prodigious things ! Thefe were, indeed, 
 the infernal fources of all the evil: and but for that 
 M night, that hell, that chaotic anarchy," of the old 
 defpotic fyftem, fuch " obfeene harpies," — fuch 
 <k foul and ravenous birds of prey," never could 
 have been in exiftence, to " hover over the 
 " heads, and foufe down upon the tables," of the 
 revolution ifts, and " rend, and rifle, and ravage, 
 *' and pollute, with the flime of their filthy offal," 
 the wholefome banquet, which the philofophers 
 of the revolution had occafioned to be fpread for 
 the focial enjoyment and fuftenance of mankind. 
 
 Such were the monfters generated in the infer- 
 nal region of the old tyranny ; and in fuch re- 
 gions fuch monfters always muft be generated, 
 till effects fhall ceafe to be commenfurate to their 
 caufes, and nature's felf fhall change. Was it 
 not time then, think you, that this " great deep" 
 were broken up — that the chaotic mafs of tyranny 
 and corruption might be thrown into new motion, 
 by the addition of fome frefh principle, or ftimulus, 
 by means of which (through whatever noife and 
 uproar) a more wholefome arrangement might be 
 produced — 
 
 " And from confufion bring forth beauteous order?" 
 
 N- It 
 
( 9« ) 
 
 It is in vain to tell me, that thefe harpies were 
 no harpies to mankind till they ihewed thenp 
 felves as fuch. Defpotifm had always its harpies: 
 and they were always well banqueted. They 
 banqueted in filence, indeed, under the old fvftem : 
 they were not garrulous, as under the new order: nor 
 did the prefs trumpet forth their attrocities. But 
 they rent, and ravaged, and rifled, and polluted, 
 and devoured, and acted all their horrors and abo- 
 minations, with avidity and diligence enough, for 
 centuries before the revolutionary fyftem was fet in 
 motion. Of this Mr. Burke, and every man who is 
 travelled, either in climes or books, is well inform- 
 ed. They had their public theatres, in which 
 they tore the quivering limbs of their prey, for 
 the amufement of courtly fpectators ; and they 
 had their cages — their cells — their Baftiles, or, as 
 Mr. Burke, more delicately calls them, " king's 
 <c caftles *," where they might banquet in filence, 
 and riot undiilurbed in all the horrid luxuries of 
 cruelty. The revolution gave them nothing but 
 a voice : and this attribute was ultimately bene- 
 ficial : for their hideous fhrieks and yells, and the 
 audacious publicity of their cruel ravages, con- 
 centrated, at laft, the general hatred of the coun- 
 try they infefted. They were hunted to their 
 caverns 3 and the race has become extinft. 
 
 * Refleaions, &c. 
 
 I do 
 
( 9' ) 
 
 I do not, however, mean to affirm that the 
 harpies of the new fyftem were the fame indivi- 
 duals as would have been the harpies of the old: 
 though, in many inftances, it was probably the 
 cafe. Cruelty is cruelty, under whatever fyftem 
 it acts; and an inquiiitor, a Fermier General, 
 and the prefident of the revolutionary tribunal, in, 
 the reel of political mutation, might join hands, 
 turn round, and change pofitions ad infinitum, with- 
 out ever appearing out of place. 
 
 But this is not all. Inhuman oppreflion gene- 
 rates inhuman revenge. All ftrong impreffions 
 produce ftrong effects. That w T hich we paffion- 
 ately deteft, we are fometimes in as much danger 
 of imitating, as that which we paffionately admire. 
 How often does the hatred of cruelty degenerate 
 into the very thing we abhor? How often does 
 the hatred of tyranny render men moft tyrannical? 
 — for the hatred of tyranny is one thing— the love 
 of liberty is another. The former is a common 
 inftin&j the latter is the nobleft attainment of 
 reafon. Add to which, that lex talionis is, with 
 the generality of mankind, the law of moral 
 aftion. " Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth," is 
 inculcated as the mandate of Deity. But the 
 nobility and clergy of France, had not eyes and 
 teeth enough to anfwer this account. Can we 
 wonder at what enfued ? 
 
 N? It 
 
( 9* ) 
 
 It would have been well for France, if the 
 influence of the old tyranny upon the moral cha- 
 racter of the people, had terminated with the evils 
 here enumerated. If the cruelty of long-efta- 
 blifhed oppreliion had only made the irritable 
 ferocious, and the ignorant revengeful, thefe 
 deftructive paffions might have been controul- 
 ed by the energy of more cultivated minds, 
 till they had been foftened and humanized by the 
 influence of more favourable, circumltances. But 
 tyranny had not left to the revolution the pofli- 
 bility of the crime with which Mr. Burke has 
 charged it in a former pamphlet. It had " flain 
 " the mind* of the country" long before that 
 revolution took place. Literature, it is true, had 
 been highly cultivated. Science had been libe- 
 rally patronized, in the upper circles; and even 
 that republican talent, eloquence, had been che- 
 rilhed with a diligence molt important, in its 
 ultimate confequences, to mankind. But the 
 jealous nature of the government — the terrors of 
 the Baftile— -the ihackles of an imprimatur — 
 the homage exacled by birth and fortune, and, 
 above all, the frivolity and effeminacy ot cha- 
 racter impofed on the nation by a profligate, 
 thoughtlefs, and luxurious court, which, having 
 
 * Reflexions, &c. 
 
 nothing 
 
( 93 ) 
 
 nothing manly in itfelf, could not be expected to 
 tolerate manhood in its dependants, " dwarfed 
 " the growth" of that mental energy which thefe 
 taftes and ftudies could not otherwife have failed 
 of producing. Hence originated the circum- 
 ftance of which the female citizen Roland com- 
 plains, that the revolution produced no men. The 
 courfe of ftudy had been perverted by the in-r 
 fluence of the government. The clofet of the 
 philofopher was infected by the contagion of the 
 court. Solidity was facrificed to ornament — the 
 virtues to the graces. In acutenefs, fubtility, pene- 
 tration, and even profundity, their literati were not 
 deficient: but they wanted that boldnefs — that 
 active energy — that collected, unembarrafled, 
 firmnefs and prefence of mind, which nothing 
 but the aclual enjoyment of liberty, and an unre- 
 ftrained intercourfe with a bold, refolute, buftling, 
 and difputatious race of men can poilibly confer. 
 This energy of mind, without which it is impof- 
 fible, in any ufeful and important fenfe of the 
 word, to be a man of bufinefs, muft be fought 
 among " thronged and promifcuous audiences," 
 " in theatres and halls of affembly;" for there 
 only it is to be found. The philofophers of 
 France, however, from the neceffities under which 
 they were placed by the government and inftitu- 
 tions of the country, either mingled with the gay 
 pircles of the diffolute and great, and became in- 
 fected 
 
( 94 ) 
 
 fecled with fervile effeminacy, or indulged their 
 fpeculations in a fort of fullen retirement, where 
 the mafculine boldnefs of the true philofophic 
 character was chilled by folitary abftraclion. 
 
 Thus did the genius of the old defpotifm de- 
 flroy, alike, the humanity of the bold, and the 
 energy of the humane and enlightened. And 
 thus it was that, the philofophers being feeble, 
 and the men of intrepidity being ferocious, the 
 republic was torn and diftracled by the crimes 
 which the defpotifm had prepared. 
 
 If it were neceffary to flrengthen this argument 
 with hiftorical evidence — if it were neceffary to 
 prove by particular records, that the difpofition 
 to thefe inhuman crimes did not originate in the 
 nature and influences of republican government, we 
 might appeal to the majjacres of St, Bartholomew, 
 to the barbarous oppreifions and wanton cruelties 
 defer ibed by Arthur Young, in the nrft edition 
 of his travels, as fpreading mifery and defo- 
 lation through the lordfliips and feigniories of 
 what Mr. Burke calls " the virtuous nobility of 
 " France *•" and, above all, to the inhuman pu- 
 nifhments — the favage protraction of lingering, but 
 exquifite tortures, with which inventive cruelty, 
 in fome notorious inftances, gratified the appe- 
 tite of royal vengeance. Nay, whatever might 
 
 * Letter, &c. p. 49. 
 
 be 
 
( 95 ) 
 
 be the conduct of particular leaders, rendered 
 cruel at firft by their intolerant zeal, and after- 
 wards, Hill more fo by their dread of retribution, 
 it would not be difficult to prove, that the cha- 
 r after of the people was humanized and improved, in- 
 ftead of being rendered more ferocious by the in- 
 fluence of the revolution. I appeal, in particular, 
 even to the very circumftance of the decree, that 
 no quarter mould be given to the Britijh or 
 Hanoverians. What was the confequence of that 
 decree ? The brave foldiers of the republic 
 refufed to execute it, even in an individual in- 
 ftance ; and the dictator was obliged to recal a 
 mandate which he found himfelf unable to en- 
 force. Would the foldiers of the old defpotifm, 
 who perpetrated the horrors of the night of St. 
 Bartholomew, have fo refufed ? Did the military 
 ilaves of our good ally, the Emprefs, difplay the 
 fame obfiinate repugnance to a frill more inhuman 
 order ? Let the ghofts of murdered babes and 
 fucking mothers, that (till hover unappeafed over 
 the captive towers of Ifmael and Warjaw, anfwer 
 the folemn queftion ! 
 
 Having thus replied to the arguments, or rather 
 to the abufe, of Mr. Burke, againft the revolution- 
 ary philofophers of France ; and having Ihewn, 
 in the firft place, that the cannibals and the phi- 
 lofophers were not only diftincl, but oppofite, fets 
 
 of 
 
C 96 ) 
 
 of men; and, in the next, that the cannibalifm 
 proceeded not from the revolution but from the 
 old defpotifm; it is not neceffary to examine, 
 very elaborately, the truth of his affertion, that 
 Cf every thing in this revolution is new." If my 
 arguments are iuft (and they are advanced in the 
 very fmcerity of my heart) it is matter of little 
 confequence whether every thing is new, or every 
 thing derived from ancient precedent. All that 
 I (hall do, therefore, is to quote from Machiavel, 
 his brief abftraft of the caufes and progrefs of re- 
 volutions, that the reader may fee how far the 
 obfervations of that fine hiftorian and acute poli- 
 tician will countenance this bold affertion. 
 
 " At the beginning of the world," fays this 
 author, " the inhabitants being few, they lived 
 " difperfed after the manner of beafts. After- 
 " wards, as they multiplied, they began to unite, 
 " and, for their better fecurity, to look out for 
 " fuch as were more ftrong, robuft, and valiant, 
 " that they might choofe one out of them to make 
 " him their head, and pay him obedience*."— 
 He then briefly iketches the progrefs of fociety 
 to another ftage, when the people having emerged 
 in fome degree from barbarifm, " being to make 
 " an election of their prince, they did not fo much 
 
 * Difcourfes on firft decade of Livy, Book I. chap. 2. 
 
 " refpect 
 
( 97 ) 
 
 " refpecl the ability of his body, as the qualiflca- 
 *-* tion of his mind, choofing him that was moft 
 f prudent and juft. But by degrees their go- 
 *.' vernment coming to be hereditary, and not by 
 " election, according to their former way, thefe 
 " who inherited degenerated from their ancejiors, and, 
 -* neglecling all virtuous actions, began to believe that 
 <e princes were exalted for no other end but to difcrimi- 
 " nate themf elves from their fubjeSls by their pomp, 
 " luxury, and other effeminate qualities > by which 
 " means they fell into the hatred uf the people, and, 
 cc by confequence, became afraid of them ; and that 
 " fear encreafmg, they began to meditate revenge, 
 " oppreiling fome and difobliging others, //// 
 " infenfibly the government altered, and fell into ty- 
 " ranny. And thefe were the firft grounds of 
 " ruin, the firfl occafion of conjuration and con/piracy 
 " againfl princes ; not fo much in the pufillanimous 
 " and poor, as in thofe whofe generofity, fpirit, 
 " and riches wouJd not fuffer them to fubmit 
 " to fuch difhonourable administrations. The 
 " multitude following the example of the nobi- 
 " lity, took up arms againft their prince; and 
 " having conquered and extirpated that govern- 
 " ment, they fubjected themfelves to the nobility, 
 " which had freed them. Thefe detefting the 
 " name of a fingle perfon, took the government 
 <c upon themfelves; and, at firft (reflecting upon 
 " the late tyranny) governed according to new 
 
 O " laws, 
 
( 9» ) 
 
 " laws, devifed by themfelves, poftponmg parti- 
 " cular profit to public advantage ; fo that both 
 " the one and the other were preferved and 
 " managed with great diligence and exattnefs. 
 " But their authority afterwards dejc ending upon 
 ** their Jons, who, being ignorant of the variations of 
 " fortune, as not having experienced her incon- 
 " ftancy, and not contenting themfelves with a civil 
 <f equality, but falling into rapine, opprefjion, ambition, 
 " and adulteries, they changed the government 
 M again, and brought it from an Optimacy to be 
 " governed by a few, without any refpecl or confidera- 
 " tion to jujlice or civility: fo that in a fhort time it 
 " happened to them as to the tyrant : for the multitude 
 " being weary of their government, were ready to 
 " a Mft an y body that would attempt to remove it. 
 " By thefe means, in a fhort time, it was extin- 
 " guifhed: and forafmuch as the tyranny of their 
 " prince and the infolence of their nobles werefrefli in 
 " their memory, they refolved to reflore neither one nor 
 " the other, but concluded upon a popular ftate." 
 Such then is the brief abftra£t, drawn by the maf- 
 terly pen of Machiavel, of the origin, progrefs, and 
 revolutions of political fociety: and though fome 
 particular inftances may be marked with partial 
 varieties in one feature, and fome in another, fuch 
 is the general picture which the hiftories of the 
 revolutions of the moft celebrated nations of the 
 ancient and modern world exhibit. The leffon it 
 
 teaches 
 
( 99 ) 
 
 teaches is mod important. Well would it be for 
 the rulers of the earth, if they would lay the inftruc- 
 tionto their hearts j and inftead of producing by one 
 fort of revolution the neceflity of another, would 
 pay that refpeft to the liberties of their refpeftive 
 countries, which they are fo anxious to exa& 
 towards their own perfons and authority. It is 
 true, that in the ftyle and language of hiftory, in 
 general, there is but one fpecies of revolution, 
 fpecifically marked as fuch — the revolutions by 
 which governments are overthrown: but if we 
 ferioufly attend either to this abftracl:, or to the 
 hiftories of the nations, of which it is fo juft a 
 fummary, we mail find that thefe have uniformly 
 been preceded by revolutions of another kind — 
 the revolutions by which governments become 
 tyrannical. 
 
 In one refpecl then, at leaft, and that the molt 
 important of all— in refpecl to its caufes, there 
 -was nothing like novelty in the French Revolu- 
 tion : nothing that could furprife or aftonifh us. 
 The pomp, luxury, and effeminacy of the court had 
 been long notorious. The extravagant and pro- 
 fligate diffipation of the princes, their neglecl of 
 all virtuous atlions, and their indulgence in every 
 vice, was a common theme of reproach againft 
 them, through all the nations of Europe. The 
 fanguinary and vinditlive fpirit of the laws, the 
 rapine, oppreffion, and jealous tyranny of the govern- 
 ment, 
 
( ioo ) 
 
 menty and the confequent mifery and deftruction 
 of the people, (in this country at leaft) were be- 
 come proverbial; and Jlavery and wooden /hoes was 
 the logic by which we juftified our hatred of the 
 French nation*. Surely thefe were caufes enough 
 to juftify a revolution — caufes enough to pro- 
 duce one. The only aftoniflnnent muft be, that 
 it did not come before. 
 
 The only novelty in this event, as far as relates 
 to caufation, confifts in the circumftance of the 
 nobility and the monarchy being overthrown 
 together. But this very circumftance fhews the 
 profundity of Mackiavel, and the accuracy of his 
 reafoning; and expofes the " flippancy", of Mr. 
 Burke. It is novelty of combination in the hiftory 
 of facts; but not novelty of combination in the 
 hiftory of caufe and effect. It is an additional 
 argument in fupport of the aflertion, that popular 
 revolutions are confequences of the revolutions of 
 tyranny and oppreffion. In France, twof revo- 
 lutions took place at the fame time; becaufe 
 twof kinds of tyranny domineered together, and 
 therefore two j- revolutions were neceflary. The 
 
 * And yet, now we are to hate them for throwing their 
 flavery and their wooden Ihoes away ! ! ! 
 
 f I might fay three. But I omit the ecclefiaftical tyranny, 
 becaufe it does not fall immediately in the way of my argu- 
 ment; and becaufe the fame reafoning will evidently apply in 
 this inftance as in the others. 
 
 nobility, 
 
( ioi ) 
 
 nobility, by " their natural ignorance, their indo- 
 " lence, and contempt of all civil government *;" 
 and ftill more by their unbounded rapacity, their 
 wanton infolence, their barbarous exactions, and 
 all-defolating pride — or, in the language of my 
 quotation, by the rapine, opprejjion, ambition, and 
 adulteries, which they indulged without refpecl or 
 conjideration of jujiice or civility, had brought them- 
 felves into general abhorrence and deteftation, 
 even before any conjurations and con/piracies againjl 
 the prince had arifen. They had made themfelves 
 partners in the guilt, and were therefore partners 
 in the puniihment of the tyranny. Inftead of 
 being a bulwark between the prince and the 
 people, to preferve the latter from the oppreffion 
 of the former, they were indeed the chief battery 
 from which the definitive engines of Gallic 
 tyranny fpread ruin and defolation through the 
 land. 
 
 And are thefe the perfons whom Mr. Burke 
 pretends " are fo like the nobility of this country, 
 " that nothing but the latter, probably not fpeak- 
 " ing quite fuch good French, could enable us 
 " to find out any difference f?" I would not for 
 the whole penfion of this " defender of the order," 
 
 * Montefq. Spir. Laws, b. ii. c. 4. 
 
 f Letter, &c. p. 59. Mr. B. it is true, applies the com- 
 parifon only to the Duke of Bedford; but it applies either to all 
 or none. 
 
 that 
 
( ioz ) 
 
 that this companion mould be true : for if it were 
 —if the titled great of Britain were what thofe 
 of France have been, then mould I exclaim, in 
 the bitternefs of my foul, that their crimes and 
 their oppreihons ought no longer to be endured 
 — no longer protected by the laws and infti- 
 tutions of the land; but that they, alfo, in their 
 turn, ought to be driven into ignominious banifh- 
 ment. 
 
 Never — never (let us hope) will our nobility 
 and great proprietors realize the fimile Mr. Burke 
 has fo imprudently made ! Never — never (let 
 us hope) will the vices, the profligacy, the info- 
 lent oppreffion, and immeafureable rapacity of 
 the French ariftocracy, ravage and depopulate 
 this country: for if they mould, not all the rhap- 
 fodies of penfioned eloquence — not all the treafon 
 and fedition bills of Pitt and Grenville, can avert 
 the terrible cataftrophe. 
 
 But the danger to this country comes from 
 another quarter. It is not from the ariftocracy, 
 properly fo called, that we have moft to dread. It 
 is not even from the prerogatives of the executive 
 power. It is from the oligarchy of the rotten 
 borough-mongers. It is from the corruption of 
 that which ought to be the reprefentative branch 
 of the legiflature. This it is that is undermining 
 (I muft not fay has undermined) the conftitution 
 and liberties of Britain. This it is that is realizing, 
 
 with 
 
( *°3 ) 
 
 with fatal rapidity, the prophefy of Montefquieu — 
 " As all human things have an end, the ftate we 
 " are fpeaking of will lofe its liberty. It will 
 " perifh. Have not Rome, Sparta, and Carthage 
 " perifhed? It will perifh, when the legiflative 
 " power mail be more corrupted than the exe- 
 " cutive*!" 
 
 Such, at leaft, are the apprehenfions that have 
 crowded upon my mind. Such are the dangers 
 which, during the laft five years, I have endea- 
 voured, with the moft laborious diligence, to avert, 
 by the only means through which they can be avert- 
 ed — by provoking popular enquiry ; by roufing, as 
 far as I had power to roufe, the energies of peace- 
 ful but determined intellect; and by endeavour- 
 ing, with all the little perfuafion I could mufter, 
 to wean my fellow citizens from the prejudices 
 and delufions of party — from all idolatrous at- 
 tachment to names and individuals, and to fix 
 their hearts and affections upon principle alone— 
 the great principle of philanthropy — the principle 
 of univerfal good — the fource and fountain of all 
 juft government — of equal rights, equal laws, reci- 
 procal refpecl, and reciprocal protection. 
 
 Thefe are the principles I have endeavoured to 
 inculcate, in political focieties, at public meet- 
 ings ; in my pamphlets, in my converfations, and 
 
 in 
 
 * Sp. Laws, bookxi. c. 6. 
 
( io 4 ) 
 
 in that le£ture-room, (that fchool of vice, as Mr. 
 Burke is pleafed to call it) at which he is fo 
 anxious to diffuade the "grown gentlemen and 
 " noblemen of our time from thinking of fmifhing 
 f whatever may have been left incomplete at the 
 " old univerfities of this country *." 
 
 If to have inculcated thefe principles with a 
 diligence and perfeverance which no difficulties 
 could check, no threats nor perfecutions could 
 controul — if to have been equally anxious to pre- 
 ferve the fpirit of the people, and the tranquillity 
 of fociety — to diffeminate the information that 
 might conduct to reform, and to check the intem- 
 perance that might lead to tumult — if thefe are 
 crimes dangerous to the exiftence of the (late, the 
 minifter did right to place me at the bar of the Old 
 Bailey : and, if perfeverance in thefe principles is per- 
 feverance in crime, it may be neceflary once more 
 to place me in the fame fituation of difgrace and 
 peril. If to aifemble my fellow citizens for the 
 purpofe of political difcuffion — if to ftrip off the 
 mafk from ftate hypocrify and ufurpation — if to 
 expofe apoftacy, confute the fophifms of court 
 jugglers and minifterial hirelings, and drag forth 
 to public notice the facls that demonftrate the 
 enormity and rapid progrefs of that corruption 
 under which we groan, and by means of which 
 the rick are tottering on the verge of bankruptcy, and 
 
 * Letter, &c. p. 35. 
 
 the 
 
( «o 5 ) 
 
 the poor are Jinking into the abyfs of famine — if this is 
 to keep a public jchool of vice and licentioiifnefs *, 
 then was it right in minifters to endeavour to feal 
 up the doors of that fchool with an act of parlia- 
 ment j then was it right that I fhould be held 
 up to public odium and public terror, by the in- 
 flammatory declamations of the Powifes and Wind- 
 hams, the tedious fophiftries of the Scotts and Mit- 
 fords, the virulent pamphlets of the Burkes and 
 Reevefes, and the conjectural defamations of Godwin f . 
 But upon what fort of pretence, even the inflamed 
 and prejudiced mind of Mr. Burke, can regard me 
 as " a wicked pander to avarice and ambition J," 
 I am totally at a lofs to conje6lure. I have at- 
 
 * Letter, &c. p. 36. 
 
 f It is painful to fee fuch a name, in fuch a lift. But if 
 men of great powers, however fincerely attached to liberty, 
 voluntarily, by cold abftraclion and retirement, cherifh afeeblenefs 
 off/iirit, which fhrinks from the creations of its own fancy, and 
 a folitary vanity, which regards every thing as vice, and mifchief, 
 and inflammation, but what accords with its own moft Angular 
 ipeculations ; and if, under thefe impreflions, and regardlefs of 
 the confequences to an ifolated individual, aflailed already by all 
 the malice and perfecutions of powerful corruption, they will fend 
 fuch bitter defamations into the world, as are contained in the 
 firft 22 pages of " Confiderations on Lord Grenville's and Mr. 
 " Pitt's Bills," they muft expect to be clafled with other calum- 
 niators. The bittereft of my enemies has never ufed me fo 
 ill as this friend has done. But nothing on earth renders a 
 man fo uncandid as the extreme affettntion of candour. 
 
 J Letter, &c. p. 47. 
 
 P tached 
 
( io6 ) 
 
 tached myfelf to no party. I have entered into 
 none of the little paltry fquabbles of placemen 
 and oppofitionifts, by which, alone, profit or pro- 
 motion can be expected. My heart and foul, it is 
 true, and I believe the heart and foul of every 
 man who entertains one grain of refpect for the 
 rights and liberties of mankind, was with the 
 Whigs in their conduct and fentiments relative to 
 two bills, to which, as they are now paffed into 
 laws, I mail give no epithet. I truft they have an 
 epithet, fufficiently defcriptive, engraved upon the 
 heart of every Briton. I thought, and I ftill think, 
 that the man muft be extravagant, indeed, in his 
 expectations, who was not fatisfied with their 
 behaviour in this refpecl ; and particularly with 
 the firm and manly opposition of Fox, Erjkine, 
 and Lauderdale : from the firft of whom, I con- 
 fefs, I did not expect a conduct fo bold and un- 
 equivocal. If any thing can preferve the party 
 from that perdition into which, by its cold, half 
 meafures, it has fo long been falling, it is perfever- 
 ing in the temper, fpirit, and fentiments of that 
 oppofition. So long as they do perfevere in that 
 temper and fpirit, I hope, and truft, that the hearts 
 and fouls of Britons will continue to be with them. 
 So long as they do fo perfevere, my heart and 
 foul, for one, will be with them, moft undoubted- 
 ly: — not as a partizan, for that I abhor — but as 
 one who, coinciding with them in a particular 
 
 principle, 
 
( io 7 ) 
 
 principle, is anxious to neglect no opportunity 
 by which that principle can be promoted. But if 
 ever, which, I truft, will not be the cafe, they 
 lliould be again weighed down by the pondrous 
 millftone of that fort of ariftocracy already de- 
 fcribed*, which fo long hung round their necks, 
 and prevented them from foaring to the heights 
 of confiftent principle, Inns and Outs, Whigs 
 and Tories, will become once more objects 
 alike of indifference — of contempt! 
 
 Thus, then, I have. coincided, upon a particu- 
 lar point, with men from whom, upon other fub- 
 jects, I have widely dilTented; and I have even 
 perfuaded myfelf, that it thofe men perfevere in 
 the fentiments and conduct: difplayed on that oc- 
 cafion, the introduction of Mr. Pitt's and Lord 
 Grenvilles bills will ultimately prove to have been 
 proud days for Britain. But amidft thefe feelings, 
 I have forfeited no confiftency. I have fhrunk 
 from no principle. I have become no " pan- 
 " der to avarice and ambition:" nor have I 
 courted the patronage of wealth or greatnefs, by 
 relinquifhing any particle of that independance, 
 which does, indeed, render me " prouder by far" 
 than all that frippery " of the Herald's College," 
 which Mr. Burke, fo fcientificallv, details f; in 
 as much as the pride of manly principle is fu- 
 
 * P. 24 to 27. -j Letter, &rc. p. 39. 
 
 P 2 perior 
 
( io8 ) 
 
 perior to the infantile vanity of the age of toys 
 and baubles. 
 
 Neither have I facrificed to intereft nor gratified 
 avarice, by my particular purfuits: whatever the 
 narrow-minded and the envious may fuppofe. What 
 I have received from the public, as the voluntary 
 price of my labours, has been fpent in the public 
 caufe : — in redeeming myfelf from the incum- 
 brances produced by inceffant perfecutions ; in 
 alleviating (where I could) the fufferings of other 
 victims j and in the expences with which my exer- 
 tions have been attended. I may fay of my po- 
 litics as Goldfmith of his mufe, 
 
 " They found me poor, and ftill have kept me fo." 
 But though I murmur not at this, neither 
 mould I hold myfelf a " pander to avarice and 
 " ambition," if I had really been enriched by my 
 lectures. Whatever emolument I might have 
 reaped, furely I alfo might have faid, " I have not 
 " received more than I deferve*:" for afiuredly 
 every man deferves all that he can get by the 
 honeft exercife of his faculties, whether of mind 
 or body. To increafe the burthens of an almoft 
 ftarving people, by receiving pennons from the 
 producl of public taxes, may be bafe. To extort 
 money, under pretence of propagating doctrines 
 which thofe who mvji pay are neither defirous to 
 
 * Letter, &:c. p. 10. 
 
 promote 
 
( J °9 ) 
 
 promote nor willing to hear, may be a fpecies of 
 public robbery: but to derive fupport, however 
 liberal, from a courfe of public inftru6tion, to which 
 the only per Jons who pay are the voluntary pupils, Mr. 
 Burke, if he had fucceeded to that profeffor's 
 chair, of which, it is faid, he was once ambitious, 
 would certainly have been ready to prove, not 
 only blamelefs, but honourable. 
 
 If avarice and ambition had been my ruling 
 paffions, it is furely admiffible for me, " thus 
 < c attacked," to fay, that with my talent for pub- 
 lic fpeaking, I mould not have abandoned, from 
 fcruples of principle, the profeffion of the law ; 
 which lays open fo fair a field for the gratification 
 both of the one and the other. If felfifh principles 
 actuated my conduct, I needed not the infinuating 
 meflage of a man (whofe eminence in a learned 
 profeffion ought to have lifted him above the 
 fliameful office of a go-between to male projlitution) 
 that, " if I chofe, I might do fomething better for 
 " myfelf than delivering public lectures." Even 
 without adopting thefe words in a fenfe which, 
 coming from fuch a quarter, I fuppofe them to 
 convey — even without becoming what my calum- 
 niator has called me — " a pander to avarice and 
 " ambition;" I have fome confidence in my own 
 refources ; and I perfuade myfelf, that with my 
 habits of induftry, and with my little flock of re- 
 putation, I could derive a better fubfiftence from 
 
 fome 
 
( tip ) 
 
 fome of the profitable branches of literature, than 
 my politics ever brought me, or ever will bring. 
 
 If I have any motives of perfonal intereft, I de- 
 ceive myfelf, and am a fool. If I were to regard 
 myfelf alone, I believe no act of parliament could 
 affect myinterefts: and certainly no intereft — no 
 reward can compenfate me for the ravages upon 
 my conftitution, and the Sacrifices of focial enjoy- 
 ment (which, as a hufband and a father, conftitute 
 the deareft gratifications of my foul), occafioned by 
 thofe exertions in which I have been fo inceflantly 
 and laborioufly employed. But how fweet and 
 alluring foever the bloffoms of domeftic felicity, 
 we muft not, in the felflfh enjoyment of cur own 
 gay partierre, neglect to root out the thorns from 
 the road of the way-faring traveller, who is tod 
 heavily laden to ftoop and remove them for 
 himfelf. 
 
 I have, therefore, renewed my exertions ; and, 
 although an act of parliament has prohibited lec- 
 tures " on the laws, conftitution, government, 
 <c and policy of thefe realms" have opened my 
 fchool again, and ihall continue to open it, at 
 fuch intervals as health will permit, to give lec- 
 tures on the laws, conftitutions, government, and 
 policy of other realms, which it is not yet prohi- 
 bited to difcufs ; to inveftigate the elements of 
 political fcience, and trace the canjes and confeqnences 
 of the various revolutions which the tyranny and oppref- 
 
 Jions 
 
( "II ) 
 
 fious of various governments have in different ages pro- 
 duced : and though I profefs no infallibility — no 
 patent of exemption from occaiional flights, or 
 rather fiounderings , of verbofe nonfenfe, I think I 
 may venture to promife that " no grown gentle- 
 " man or nobleman," who lliall be defirous " of 
 " finilhing," at Beaufort-buildings, " anything that 
 " may have been left incomplete at the old uni- 
 " verfities*," will lofe his time in liftening to 
 fuch jargon as the following pafTage, with the 
 cxpofition of which I fhall clofe this pamphlet. 
 
 " I conceived nothing arbitrarily, nor propofed 
 £ any thing to be done by the will and pleafure 
 * of others, or my own ; but by reafon, and by 
 ' reafon only. I have ever abhorred, fmce the 
 ' firft dawn of my underflanding, to this its ob- 
 ' fcure twilight, all the operations of opinion, fancy, 
 ' inclination, and will, in the affairs of govern- 
 ' ment, where only afovereigu reafon, paramount 
 ' to all forms of legiflation and adminiftration, 
 c fliould dictate. Government is made for the 
 c very purpofe of oppoiing that reafon to will, 
 ' and to caprice, in the reformers, or in the re- 
 ' formed; in the governors, or in the governed; 
 ' in kings, in fenates, or in people f !" 
 
 In the name of common fenfe how many gods 
 has Mr. Burke in his mythology? — Who is this 
 
 * Letter, &c. p. 35. ^ Ibid. p. 24. 
 
 Sovereign 
 
( II* ) 
 
 Sovereign Reafon? In which of the feven heavens 
 does fhe refide? For he has told us that in this 
 blind world fhe is no where to be found! At 
 firft, indeed, I fufpeaed my antagonift (for whom 
 no incongruity, no contradiftion is too glaring) of 
 having flipped unawares, into rank democracy ; 
 and of defcribing, by this new Gallicifm— Sovereign 
 Reafon, the collective reafon of the SOVEREIGN 
 PEOPLE; or, in other words, the concentrated 
 opinion of mankind: but upon looking a little 
 further, I find that this cannot be his meaning, 
 for he exprefsly fays, that « government is made 
 " for the very purpofe of oppofing this [Sovereign] 
 « Reafon (whatever it is) to will, and to caprice, 
 « in the reformers or in the reformed, in the 
 « governors or in the governed, in kings, in 
 « fenates, or in people :"»-that is to fay in all 
 human beings. Now that which is to oppofe 
 the will and caprice of all human beings (or even 
 to decide, in oppofition to all human beings, 
 what is reafonable, and what is wilful and capri- 
 cious) muft be either pofitive, exifting injlitution, 
 or it muft be fome being who is more than human. 
 That it cannot be pofitive, exifting inftitution, 
 which is to be regarded as the ftandard, is evi- 
 dent; becaufe Mr. Burke talks of « reformers 
 « and reformed;" and, if pofitive exifting inftitu- 
 tion is the ftandard of Sovereign Reafon, there can 
 be no reform at all; for every attempt to reform is, 
 
 upon 
 
( "3 ) 
 upon this hypothefis, an opposition of the will 
 and caprice of the reformers (whether kin-, 
 folates, or people) to this Sovereign Reafon' 
 What was this reafon, then, which was not the 
 operation of the opinions either of others or his 
 own, but without confulting which he neither 
 conceived any of his reforms, nor propofed any 
 thing to be done?- Why does he thus bewilder 
 our judgment, without uniting our imagination? 
 Why leave us benighted in thofe cold fo<r S of 
 myfticifm? If he is inclined to impofe upon 
 us a belief in fomething more than mere vulgar 
 human faculty, by which his reforms, and the 
 all-perfca wifdora of government, are to con- 
 troul the will and caprice of the human race, 
 why not ftrike us at once with fome grand flight 
 of inventive fancy, that we may at leaf! have 
 fomething pleafurable and amufive in exchange 
 for the common fenfe we are to furrender. Could 
 not Numa Pompillius have lent him his Egeria? 
 or Socrates his Damon* or St. Dunjian his red 
 hot tongs, to lead the devil about the country, for 
 the amufement of gaping ruftics? 
 
 Of all the fiaions, romances, and impofitions, 
 that bewilder mankind, the moft infipid, as well 
 as the moft abfurd, are thefe dull, canting, meta- 
 phyfical rhapfodies ! 
 
 The reader will judge between us; but for my 
 own part, I have ever confidered reafon. as no- 
 
 Q thing 
 
( H4 ) 
 
 thing more than one of the operations of the 
 mind, employed in the refearch, comparifon, and 
 digeftion, of that knowledge by which folid and 
 ufeful undemanding can alone be produced. 
 For the fanity or perfection of' this faculty, I 
 have always confidered that there is no pofitive 
 teft or ftandard; and that the mod confident 
 deduaion of the moft cultivated reafon is but 
 « an opinion" ftill; except in as much as relates 
 to that onefcience, which is known to admit of 
 demembration. Confidering, therefore, that all 
 queftions of government, muft ultimately be de- 
 cided either by the aggregated reafon (or as Mr. 
 Burke may call it, the aggregate will or caprice) of 
 fociety, or, as is more commonly the cafe, by the 
 reafon, will, or caprice of the governors; and, 
 confidering, alfo, that the multitude can have no 
 mtereft in reafoning wrong; I have thought it of 
 the higheft importance to awaken my fellow 
 citizens, in this time of peril and affliaion, to 
 the exercife of their faculties on queftions of the 
 greateft importance to us all; and to inculcate, 
 not as matter of dogmatical opinion, but of 
 ufeful enquiry, fuch fentiments and doarines as 
 to me appeared conducive to public happinefs. 
 This, notwithftanding the calumny and perfec- 
 tion with which I may be affailed, I mall ftill 
 continue to do, not raihly, I hope— I am fure not 
 
 fearfully: 
 
( "5 ) 
 
 fearfully j varying my means, according to the 
 circumftances under which new impediments 
 and new reflections may place me. Among 
 other things, I have thought it my duty to make 
 fome reply to this feditious and inflammatory 
 libel of Mr. Burke (for fo to me it appears in the 
 moft eminent and alarming degree;) making it, 
 at the fame time, a vehicle for the inculcation of 
 principles favourable at once, I believe, to the 
 Rights of Man and the inter efts of humanity — for 
 they are indeed body and foul, and can only 
 exift together. 
 
 I would fain hope that this pamphlet, and the 
 anfwers it has provoked, and will provoke, may 
 roufe, once more, that general fpirit of enquiry, 
 fo effential at this time 3 and that notwithftand- 
 ing the temporary panic produced by the new 
 treafon and fedition acls, we mall return once 
 more to the manly and vigorous exercife of thofe 
 innumerable means, which ftill lay open for en- 
 forcing the bold enquiries of reafon, and the 
 facred love of humanity and juftice; that thus, if 
 the wild and defperate projects of the minifter 
 iliould unhinge the fyftem he profeffes to fupport, 
 and produce that diffolution of all focial bonds, 
 which he profeffes fuch anxiety to avert, the 
 principle of order may ftill remain, indeftructible, in 
 the hearts, feelings, and pailions of my fellow 
 
 citizens; 
 
( "6 ) 
 
 citizens j and (as Dr. •Darwin fo beautifully fays 
 of Nature, from the rude mafs, in which he fup- 
 pofes Death, and Night, and Chaos, will fome- 
 time or other mingle the whole planetary fyftem 
 
 " High o'er the wreck, emerging from the ftorm, 
 " Immortal Freedom lift her changeful form; 
 ** Mount from the funeral pyre on wings of fame, 
 " And foar and ftiir.e, another and the fame!" 
 
 FINIS. 
 
«>.v 
 
 MM 
 
 j&m 
 
 ml 
 
 ■ 
 
 ■1 
 
 *r 
 
 Hi 
 
 H^ 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 ■1 
 
 BfiL 
 
 a-y- 
 
 9S 
 
 ■■H 
 
 ssewi 
 
 ■■j 
 
 •(£