ORATION AGAINST WARREN HASTINGS.

225

V. PERORATION IN THE ORATION AGAINST WARREN

HASTINGS.

BURKE,

My lords, at this awful close, in the name of the Commons, and surrounded by them, I attest the retiring, I attest the advancing generations, between which, as a link in the great chain of eternal order, we stand. We call this nation, we call the world to witness, that the Commons have shrunk from no labor; that we have been guilty of no prevarication; that we have made no compromise with crime; that we have feared no odium whatsoever, in the long warfare we have carried on with the crimes-with the vices-with the exorbitant wealth-with the enormous and overpowering influence of Eastern corruption. This war, my lords, we have waged for twenty-two years, and the conflict has been fought, at your lordships' bar, for the last seven years. My lords, twenty-two years is a great space in the scale of the life of man; it is no inconsiderable space in the history of a great nation. A business which has so long occupied the councils and the tribunals of Great Britain, cannot possibly be huddled over in the course of vulgar, trite, and transitory events. Nothing but some of those great revolutions, that break the traditionary chain of human memory, and alter the very face of nature itself, can possibly obscure it. My lords, we are all elevated to a degree of importance by it; the meanest of us will, by means of it, more or less, become the concern of posterity-if we are yet to hope for such a thing, in the present state of the world, as a recording, retrospective, civilized posterity but this is in the hand of the great Disposer of events; it is not ours to settle how it shall be. My lords, your house yet stands; it stands as a great edifice; but let me say, it stands in the midst of ruins-in the midst of the ruins that have been made by the greatest moral earthquake that ever convulsed or shattered this globe of ours. My lords, it has pleased Providence to place us in such a state, that we appear every moment to be upon the verge of some great mutations. There is one thing, and one thing only, which defies all mutation, that which existed before the world, and will survive the fabric of the world itself-I mean justice that justice which, emanating from Divinity, has a place in the breast of very one of us, given us for our guide with regard to our

selves and with regard to others, and which will stand, after this globe is burned to ashes, our advocate or our accuser before the great Judge, when He comes to call upon us for the tenor of a well-spent life.

My lords, if you must fall, may you so fall! but if you stand—and stand I trust you will-together with the fortune of this ancient monarchy-together with the ancient laws and liberties of this great and illustrious kingdom-may you stand as unimpeached in honor as in power; may you stand, not as a substitute for virtue, but as an ornament of virtue, as a security for virtue; may you stand long, and long stand the terror of tyrants; may you stand the refuge of afflicted nations; may you stand a sacred temple, for the perpetual residence of an inviolable justice.

VI. CATILINE'S ADDRESS TO THE CONSPIRATORS.

SALLUST.

HAD not your valor and fidelity been well known to me, fruitless would have been the smiles of Fortune; the prospect of as mighty domination would in vain have opened upon us; nor would I have mistaken illusive hopes for realities, uncertain things for certain. But since, on many and great occasions, I have known you to be brave and faithful, I have ventured to engage in the greatest and noblest undertaking; for I well know that good and evil are common to you and me. That friendship at length is secure, which is founded on wishing and dreading the same things. You all know what designs I have long revolved in my mind; but my confidence in them daily increases, when I reflect what our fate is likely to be, if we do not vindicate our freedom by our own hands. For, since the republic has fallen under the power and dominion of a few, kings yield their tributes, governorships their profits to them all the rest, whether strenuous, good, noble or ig noble, are the mere vulgar: without influence, without authority, we are obnoxious to those to whom, if the commonwealth existed, we should be a terror. All honor, favor, wealth, is centered in them, or those whom they favor to us are left dangers, repulses, lawsuits, poverty. How long will you endure them, O ye bravest of men? is it not bet

1

CONCILIATION OF IRELAND.

227

ter to die bravely, than drag out a miserable and dishonored life, the sport of pride, the victims of disgrace? But by the faith of gods and men, victory is in our own hands: our strength is unimpaired; our minds energetic: theirs is enfeebled by age, extinguished by riches. All that is required is to begin boldly; the rest follows of course. Where is the man of a manly spirit, who can tolerate that they should overflow with riches, which they squander in ransacking the sea, in levelling mountains, while to us the common necessaries of life are wanting? They have two or more superb palaces each; we know not wherein to lay our heads. When they buy pictures, statues, basso-relievos, they destroy the old to make way for the new in every possible way they squander away their money; but all their desires are unable to exhaust their riches. At home, we have only poverty; abroad, debts present adversity; worse prospects. What, in fine, is left us, but our woe-stricken souls? What, then, shall we do? That, that which you have ever most desired. erty is before your eyes; and it will soon bring riches, renown, glory: Fortune holds out these rewards to the victors. The time, the place, our dangers, our wants, the splendid spoils of war, exhort you more than my words. Make use of me either as a commander or a private soldier. in soul nor body will I be absent from your side. These deeds I hope I shall perform as consul with you, unless my hopes deceive me, and you are prepared rather to obey as slaves, than to command as rulers.

Lib

Neither

VII.-CONCILIATION OF IRELAND.

ERSKINE.

WE refused to look at the grievances of America whilst they were curable. It was this refusal which gave birth to her independence. The same procrastinating spirit prevailed at that period which prevails now, and the same delusion as to the effects of terror and coercion. Lord Chatham's warning voice was rejected. "Give satisfaction to America," said that great statesman- "conciliate her affection-do it to-night-do it before you sleep." But we slept and did it not, and America was separated from us forever.

Ireland in the same manner obtained a sudden and un sought-for independence, and has been brought to her present state of alarming hostility to this country. We refused to see what stared us in the face in characters reddening into blood; but the light broke in upon us at last, not through well-constructed windows, but through the yawning chasms of our ruin. We were taught wisdom through humiliation— I am afraid we have much more to learn in that useful, but melancholy school. The identical system by which America was lost to Great Britain, ministers are now acting over again with regard to Ireland at this moment. They refuse to redress her grievances. They listen not to her complaints; what America was, Ireland, perhaps England itself, will shortly be, if you obstinately refuse to adopt that system of conciliation which alone can bring back affection and obedience to any government which has lost it.

Let ministers instantly forego that fatal system of coercion which forced America from her connection with us into the arms of France, and which is, at this very moment, driving Ireland to seek the same protection. Let them relinquish the insane attempt to retain the affection of that country at the point of the bayonet, which is hourly tearing out of the hearts of Irishmen those feelings of kindness and love for England, upon which the permanence of union between the two countries can alone be established. This fatal system of coercion and terror, which ministers seem resolved to persevere in, has made half Europe submit to the arms of France, and has given the air of romance or rather of enchantment to the career of her conquests. Now in Holland -now on the Rhine--almost at the same moment overturning the states of Italy, and overawing the empire at the gates of Vienna. Without meaning to underrate the unexampled energies of a mighty nation repelling the atrocious combinations of despotism against her liberties, the nations with which she contended had no privileges to fight for, or any governments worth preserving; they felt therefore no interest in their preservation. Whilst the powers of such governments remained, their subjects were drawn up in arms, and appeared to be armies; but when invasion had silenced the power which oppressed them, they became in a moment the subjects and the soldiers of their invaders. Take warning from so many examples -the principles of revolution are eternal and universal.

A FREE CONSTITUTION.

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VIII-A FREE CONSTITUTION.

BOLINGBROKE.

Ir ever a weak and corrupt administration should arise; if an evil minister should embezzle the public treasure; if he should load the nation in times of peace, with taxes greater than would be necessary to defray the charge of an expensive war; if money thus raised should be expended, under the pretence of secret service, to line his own pockets; to stop the mouths of his hungry dependants; to bribe sorne future parliament to approve his measures; and to patch up an illdigested, base, dishonorable peace with foreign powers, whom he shall have offended by a continual series of provocations and blunders ; if he should advise his sovereign to make it a maxim, that his security consisted in the continuance, or increase of the public debts, and that his grandeur was founded on the poverty of his subjects; if he should hazard the affections of the people, by procuring greater revenues for the crown, than they shall be able to spend or the people to raise; and after this, engage his prince to demand still farther sums as his right, which all men should be sensible were not his due; I say, if the nation should ever fall under these unhappy circumstances, they will then find the excellence of a free constitution. The public discontent, which upon such occasions has formerly burst forth in a torrent of blood, of universal confusion and desolation, will make itself known only in faint murmurs, and dutiful general complaints. The nation will wait long, before they engage in any desperate measures, that may endanger a constitution, which they justly adore, and from which they confidently expect a sure, though perhaps a dilatory justice, upon such an enormous offender.

These are the inestimable advantages of our present happy settlement. Let us prize it as we ought. Let us not have the worse opinion of the thing itself, because it may, in some instances, be abused. But let us retain the highest veneration for it. Let us remember how much it is our right, and let us resolve to preserve it, untainted and inviolable. Then shall we truly serve our king; we shall do our duty to our country; and preserve ourselves in the condition, for which all men were originally designed; that is, of a free people.