A distinguished person: Mr. Glover, born 1712, died 1785. In 1742 he had presented to Parliament a petition of the merchants of London, asking for the protection of their commerce from the Spaniards. Different editors have called attention to the fact that, as Mr. Glover appeared again in 1775, Burke should have said thirty-three instead of thirty-five years.
Mr. Glover was the author of two long epics, Leonidas and The Athenaid, both of which were much read in the eighteenth century, but are now almost forgotten.
At your bar: a rod or bar across the main entrance to the chamber in which the House of Commons sits, and which may be passed by officers and members only. All other persons presenting petitions or other communications must do so from outside the bar.
If 19-24. General note.
These paragraphs have special value to the student of argumentation. The student can not fail to realize the value of the statistics contained in these paragraphs to Burke's argument; that is, the value of carefully collected information as indisputable proof of his statements. It will be observed here that Burke had collected his proof without regard to the amount of effort and pains required. A successful argument can not be built upon imagination alone; it must be sustained by facts. These facts can be obtained only by the most patient research; and the student who hopes to become a master of argument must learn how to make this research in a great library. The man who will make careful research is bound to be the master of the man who is too indolent to make it. The student should learn a lesson here.
Tl" 19. Davenant: Charles Davenant, inspector general of exports and imports, appointed 1705; son of Sir William Davenant, once poet laureate of England.
T[ 20. African: referring to the slave trade, which was carried on between Africa and the colonies only, and therefore properly included here by Burke.
*J[ 21. The student should turn the figures used in Burke's statistics into their American equivalent of dollars, estimating the pounds in round numbers at five dollars. The purchasing power of a pound, however, was several times greater than now.
Tf 24. Unnatural protuberance. Selby says: " Has not our increased trade with America been purchased at the cost of our trade with other countries? Have we not spent so much in America that we have nothing left to spend in other countries t A protuberance means, literally, a bulging or swelling. The killing of one trade by another is compared to the death of a man from a tumor, which absorbs the juices that ought to go to sustain the rest of his body."
Tf 25. It is good for us to be here: Mark ix, 2-5; Matthew Clouds indeed and darkness...
" The wide, the unbounded prospect lies before me; But shadows, clouds, and darkness rest upon it."
Lord Bathurst: Allen Apsley Bathurst, born 1684, died 1775, six months after this speech was made. He was made Baron Bathurst in 1711, and after his son Henry was made Lord Chancellor in 1771, was created earl in 1772, out of compliment to his son. This information, however, is not so important to the student as is the study of the effect of this burst of eloquence in attracting and holding the attention of Burke's audience. The pupil should determine Burke's purpose in this paragraph.
Acta parentum jam legere, et quae sit poterit cognoscere virtus: To read the deeds of his forefathers, and to know what virtue is. Adapted from Vergil, Eclogues, iv, 26, 27.
NOTES ON THE TEXT 14.7 Third prince of the House of Brunswick. George the Third was not the son, but the grandson, of George the Second; so, while he was the third prince (king) of the house of Brunswick, he was of the fourth generation.
Was to be made Great Britain. The name Great Britain, as applied to the kingdom, had its origin in the union of the English and Scottish parliaments in 1707.
A small seminal principle: a germ. ' Before you taste of death: Matthew xvi, 28; John viii, 52; Julius Ccesar, Act II, sc. ii, 33.
1 26. The student should note here with what skill and effectiveness Burke uses his comparison of colonial trades. He goes from the general to the particular. He first shows the smallness of the export trade to the colonies in 1704, then its comparatively enormous extent in 1772; then he compares the whole export trade of England in 1704 to that to the colonies alone in 1772; then he further enforces his point by bringing his comparison down to the grasp of the weakest mind in his audience by citing a comparison of the export trade to one colony in 1704 with the export trade to that colony in 1772. Observe how he drives his point home in 1 29. Burke's argumentative purpose in this paragraph is to show that the time would come when the colonies should be absolutely necessary to Great Britain to supply her with food. The student should hold this and the succeeding paragraph in mind, and should watch for the place in the speech where Burke makes use of this information which he has implanted in the minds of his hearers. In short, he is preparing their minds for a conclusion to be reached further on in the speech. Where does England get her present food supply?
A Bximan charity: reference to an old Roman tale in which one Cimon, who had been condemned to death by starvation, was kept alive by his daughter Xanthippe with milk from her own breast.
1 30. Burke has a hidden purpose in this paragraph. He does not openly threaten Parliament with danger from the fighting qualities of the colonists, but he leaves the impression, while simply expressing his admiration of their bold courage, that men who will penetrate into the deepest frozen recesses of Hudson Bay and Davis Straits in the north and to the far Falkland Islands in the south are not to be coerced. It may be said that tin's paragraph is an enforcement of the point made in the iast sentence of 1 16.
Brawn from the sea. The inhabitants of nearly all the coast iowns of New England were engaged in catching and curing fish from the Newfoundland fisheries. They carried on an extensive commerce in trading the cured fish for molasses and rum in the West Indies. The student who has studied the Navigation Acts carefully will remember how the British Government tried to restrict this trade.
Frozen Serpent: a constellation under the antarctic circle.
Falkland Island: one of a group of islands east of the southern extremity of South America. Used here to convey the idea of the extremest extent of navigation to the southward.
Draw the line and strike the harpoon: technical terms concerning the use of the rope and harpoon in whale fishing.
Bun the longitude. As Burke has formerly shown that American fishermen sailed to the extreme north and to the extreme south of the Atlantic, here he shows that they also plied their trade to the extreme limits of the Atlantic east and west, or from Davis Straits to the Falkland Islands, and from Africa to Brazil.
T[ 32. Complexions: an intimation that the opinions of certain gentlemen in the House were biased by the professions that they followed.
Those who understand the military art. In February, 1775, General Burgoyne, then a member of Parliament, made a heated speech favoring military coercion of the colonies. It will be remembered that he was afterward sent to carry out his idea, and became convinced of his error at Saratoga in 1777.
Wield the thunder: reference to the ministry, who have control of armies and navies. In this case the reference is to Lord North.
^[^[ 33-36. Observe in these paragraphs how carefully Burke has prepared and arranged the points of his argument.
^f 33. Force alone is but temporary. " But I think that young men who exercise their understanding, and expect to become capable of teaching their fellow-citizens what is for their interests, grow by no means addicted to violence, knowing that on violence attend enmity and danger, but that by persuasion the same results are attained without peril, and with good will; for those who are compelled by us, hate us as if despoiled of something, while those who are persuaded by us, love us as if they had received a favor. It is not the part, therefore, of those who cultivate the intellect to use violence; for to adopt such a course belongs to those who possess brute force without intellect. Besides, he who would venture to use force has need of no small number of allies; but he who can succeed with persuasion has need of none, for, though left alone, he will think himself still able to persuade; and it by no means belongs to such men to shed blood, for who would wish to put another man to death rather than to have him as a living subject persuaded to obey?" — Xenophon's Memorabilia, Book I, chap, ii, Tf^f 10, 11.
Tf 88. This fierce spirit of liberty. Take note that Burke here gives the general points which he elaborates in ^T^f 39-45.
T 39. Abstract liberty. To illustrate this, the American colonies would never have resisted even a constantly renewed statement on the part of the mother country that she had the right to tax the colonies, unless she had attempted to assert this right by levying and attempting the collection of a tax on some definite article, such as tea — that is, " liberty inheres in some sensible object." Sensible here means capable of being known by the senses.
Mediately or immediately: that is, by their own acts or by the acts of their representatives.
A monopoly of theorems: to assert their right to privileges under certain principles of the English Constitution, but to refuse the same to the colonists, who were Englishmen as much as were the members of Parliament themselves.
^[ 40. Popular -. " of the people, for the people, and by the people.''
T 41. Dissidence cf dissent. As Protestantism protested against Roman Catliolici.-m. so Puritanism, in turn, protested against Protestantism.
Tf 42. Gothic ancestors: Teutonic or Germanic ancestors, who in their villages or hams allowed no man to assert superiority over others, except by their own suffrages. See Green's Short History of the English People, chap. i.
Poles: reference to the partition of Poland by and among Russia, Prussia, and Austria in 1772. The desperate struggle of the Poles for liberty is commemorated in Campbell's The Downfall of Poland. It will be remembered that Kosciusko, the leader of the Poles, came to America and took part in the American Revolution, If 43. Congress: the First Continental Congress, which met in Philadelphia, September, 1774. Look up the names of the members, and note what proportion were lawyers.
Blackstone's Commentaries: the most important book used in the study of English law, the first volume of the correct edition <A which was published in 1765.
150 BURKE 'S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION By successful chicane. General Gage, commandant of the troops in Boston, forbade the holding of any town meetings after June, 1774. The people of Boston continued to hold their meetings without violating his order by simply adjourning to meet at a future date, so that they did not call any meetings — they simply attended adjourned meetings.
My honorable and learned friend: Attorney-General Thurlow, whom Burke noticed taking notes of the speech. At the close of Burke's speech Thurlow used these notes to great advantage; for in a very brief speech he so fully destroyed the effect of Burke's effort as to produce an adverse vote of 270 to 78.
The student will observe here that Burke did not talk, like some speakers, at the ceiling in an oratorical way; he talked right at his audience. The greatest fault of young speakers is that they do not look at their audiences, and therefore fail to hold their attention.
On the floor: the space between the benches on the two sides of the chamber. The benches occupied by the members are in tiers rising toward the walls, and the opposing parties of the House face each other. The ministers, or party leaders, occupy the first row of benches, which are on the floor. (See House of Commons, p. 23.)
When great honors and great emoluments. Prominent citizens of Boston had been proffered high-salaried offices in order to attach them to the English side of the controversy; but to a man they had refused, or had resigned when they discovered the motive. James Otis was one of these.
Abeunt studia in nores: studies pass into character, or the things that we learn in our studies or pursuits become convictions that are moving forces in our lives (Ovid, Heroides, xv, 83). Read, in Bacon's Essays, No. 50, Of Studies.
T 44. "Winged ministers of vengeance: the sail ships of which the English navy was then composed.
Pounces. Burke compares the ships to the eagle, which in Greek mythology is represented as carrying the thunderbolts of Zeus in its pounces or talons.
So far shalt thou go: Job xxxviii, 11.
The Turk can not govern: that is, the Sultan of Turkey can not govern his Asiatic and African provinces as he can those surrounding Constantinople. Kurdistan is in central Asia; Brusa and Smyrna are in Asia Minor; the other names are too familiar to need annotation. The correctness of. Burke's statement is borne out by Omar Khayyam, the Persian poet of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, who, in the eleventh quatrain of the Rubaiyat, says: " With me along the strip of herbage strewn That just divides the desert from the sown, Where name of slave and Sultan is forgot— And peace to Mahmoud on his golden throne 1 " To truck and huckster. Note the applicability of these words to Burke's purpose. In the " auction of finance," ^| 10, he shows that the Government is seeking bids for privileges in a haggling manner, like that of truckers and hucksters who haggle with purchasers over the prices of their wares.
*([ 45. Observe Burke's summing up here, and the way in which he drives his points home, and concludes with this sentence: " From all these causes a fierce spirit of liberty has grown up." He follows this up in the next paragraph with the most natural question in the world, " What, in the name of God, shall we do with it? " This question is the text of the remainder of the brief proper.
Tf 46. Perhaps we might wish the colonists to be persuaded. Study the fine sarcasm here.
With all its imperfections on its head: Hamlet, Act I, sc. v. line 79.
You see the magnitude. Observe that Burke proceeds to expand these five points.
Operose: see dictionary.
Lord Dunmore: colonial governor of Virginia in Burke's time. His name is familiarly connected with the early days of Washington.
Artificial media. The usual means or media of transmission of the wishes of the home government was by royal charters or decrees, and by acts of Parliament.
T[ 47. We wholly abrogated. Burke here refers to an act passed by Parliament, May 11, 1774, entitled, "An act for the better regulating the government of the province of Massachusetts Bay, in New England." This act practically invalidated the charter of Massachusetts. It transferred nearly all functions of government from the people of Massachusetts to the crown. The upper chamber of the provincial assembly, which had been elected by the lower house, chosen directly by the people, was thereafter to be appointed by the crown. All magistrates, judges, and sheriffs were to be appointed by the royal governor, and were to hold their offices subject to his pleasure, thus enabling him to dictate their conduct. Jurymen, who had formerly been chosen by direct election, were by this act.summoned by the sheriffs, thus enabling the governor to secure any verdict that he desired; and no town meetings could be called except by special permission from the governor, so that popular deliberation upon wrongs was rendered impossible except by chicane. (See note on " successful chicane," Tf 43.)
Tf 48. To change that spirit. Observe here Burke's method of argument. It is what may be called " argument by elimination." He shows that there are three, and only three, possible methods of settling the question. He demonstrates that the first two are not practicable, therefore leaving the third as the only reasonable method. ItwiU _be_noticed that this method makes it unnecessary tpjdiscuss or demonstrate the' third point (see ^f 65).
Tf 50. To make no farther grants of land. It had been urged that the difficulty with the colonies might be limited to its present extent, at least by making no further grants of land, so that the colonies might be prevented from increasing to such proportions as would render them able successfully to resist the mother country. Note Burke's answer. His prophecy that they " would wander without a possibility of restraint " has proved true; but they did not " become hordes of English Tartars." No more noble class of people ever lived than those very pioneers who, without permission or grant, settled the western wilderness to which Burke refers.
Tf 51. English Tartars. Burke's reference is possibly to Attila and the Huns, or more probably to Genghis Khan.
Increase and multiply: Genesis i, 28.
Virtue of wax and parchment. All charters and documents at that time were written on parchment, and the seals of authority were imprinted thereon in wax. The ceremony of sealing had, among Englishmen, the effect of a sacred covenant. The simple signature of one's name was not enough. For example, the death warrant of Charles I was not only signed by the judges, but each imprinted his seal in wax beside his signature.
Tf 53. For no purpose but to be serviceable to us. This sentence is the keynote to all the trouble. The mother country felt that the colonies existed only for her benefit; the colonists felt that they existed for the purpose of securing their own happiness; that they existed for themselves, and that they had as good a right to exist for themselves as did Englishmen in England. Strange to say, Burke here seems to take his stand upon the mother countrv's side.
Spoliatis anna snpersunt: those who have been despoiled ma$ still resort to arms (Juvenal, Satires, viii, 124).
It was the custom in Burke's time (inexcusable now) to intersperse a speech with Latin quotations. Affected as it seems to us, this quotation expresses in three words what it would ordinarily take a paragraph to express.
*§ 55. Inquisition: reference to the Inquisition, whose spies were in almost every household of its time (see encyclopaedia).
Dragooning. It had been the custom in former years to keep a province in subjugation by means of dragoons or cavalrymen, whose business it was to ride from house to house throughout the province as a constant menace to incipient rebels. The dragoons in the days of the Scotch Covenanters would ride up to a house, knock on the door with the butt of a musket, enter, and search for arms or for Covenanters in the act of worshiping according to their peculiar doctrine. Read Scott's Old Mortality for a detailed account of " dragooning."
T[ 57. African vessel. In that day most vessels were what are now termed " tramp ships " — i. e., they had no regular ports between which they made stated voyages. Parliamentary decrees or proclamations were sometimes sent to the southern colonies by means of a ship which was going from England to Angola or Guinea, on the west coast of Africa, for a ship load of slaves, to be taken thence to the American colonies. Observe the fine irony in this passage.
^f 59. Alterative coarse: a system of treatment of colonial troubles for the purpose of gradually changing the sentiment of the colonists; as " to change that spirit, as inconvenient, by removing the causes," or " to prosecute it as criminal." Burke's reference is to the so-called " alterative " medicines which, taken in stated doses, are intended to change the human system from an unhealthy to a healthy state.
^f 60. Sir Edward Coke: an eminent English lawyer, born 1552, died 1633. He was counsel for the crown in 1603 in the trial of Sir Walter Raleigh for treason. In his speech for the conviction of the defendant he abused that nobleman shamefully, saying, " I will prove you the notoriousest traitor that ever came to the bar "; further on he said: " Thou art a monster; thou hast an English face but a Spanish heart "; and further on, " Thou viper; for I thou thee, thou traitor!" And then he triumphantly asked, "Havel angered you? " For a part of this speech, see The World's Best Orations, p. 1348.
^[ 61. Nice. Burke here uses this much-abused word correctly. What is the common error in the use of this word? Explain the correct use.
Ex vi termini: from the force of the term; from the meaning of the word.
For the head of the empire to insist. This is as plain a statement as a member of Parliament would dare to make with respect to the king that the people of the colonies were considered absolute rebels because they had resisted illegal taxation and had demanded the privileges of Englishmen.
Under the ban: see dictionary.
^f 62. Civil litigant: one engaged in a suit which concerns legal rights but not criminal offenses. In such cases, the person suing for the legal right or being sued for refusing to be deprived of a legal right is in no sense a culprit. The decision would be whether he should or should not have the right concerned in the suit; yet (says Burke), while the Americans are simply demanding a legal right, the British Government, instead of deciding whether they should or should not have it, proceeds to sentence them as criminals, as shown in ^[ 63.
Tf 63. By lately declaring a rebellion. On February 9, 1775, one month and a half before this speech was made, both Houses of Parliament had sent to the king an address stating: " We find that a part of your Majesty's subjects in the province of the Massachusetts Bay have proceeded so far to resist the authority of the supreme legislature that a rebellion at this time actually exists within the said province."
Formerly addressed. The two Houses of Parliament had, on February 13, 1769, presented to the king an address humbly beseeching " your Majesty...to direct your Majesty's governor of Massachusetts Bay to take the most effectual methods for procuring the fullest information that can be obtained touching all treasons or misprision of treason committed within this government since the 30th day of December last,...together with the names of the persons who were most active in the commission of such offenses,...in order that your Majesty may issue a special commission for...hearing and determining the said offenses within this realm, pursuant to the provisions of the statute of the thirty-fifth year (1543-'44) of the reign of King Henry the Eighth."
Act of Henry the Eighth. This act provided that persons accused of treasonable acts committed outside of England should be brought to England for trial. In the Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol, Burke says of the revival of this act: " To try a man under this act is, in effect, to condemn him unheard. A person is brought hither in the dungeon of a ship's hold; thence he is vomited into a dungeon on land, loaded with irons, unfurnished with money, unsupported by friends, three thousand miles from all means of calling upon or confronting evidence, where no one local circumstance that tends to detect perjury can possibly be judged of; such a person may be executed according to form, but he can never be tried according to justice."
Juridical ideas: see note on " juridical determination," If 9.
T[ 64. Menaces: references to the many threats in the parliamentary addresses to the king, assuring him that both Houses would give him all possible aid in supporting the authority of the kingdom in the colonies, and also in supporting the king's dignity and honor.
Nothing less: not at all.
•' 66. Characteristic mark and seal of British freedom: that they had not the rights of Englishmen.
Tf 67. That I am resolved, etc. Burke, in his Speech on American Taxation, April 19, 1774, had at great length discussed the American question from the standpoint of taxation (see note Some gentlemen startle: here used intransitively, meaning seem surprised; presumably because Burke asserted that he did not intend to discuss the question from the standpoint of taxation, which had been a hobby with him.
Policy of the question. He intends to discuss the matter in relation to the policy which would best conserve England's commercial interests, rather than from the standpoint of the rights of the colonists with respect to taxation, as he had discussed it in his Speech on American Taxation. He intends to show that England will lose financially by following Lord North's method (see ^[ 35).
Serbonian bog: Milton's Paradise Lost, Book II, 592-594. Reference to Lake Serbonis, a boggy lake east of the mouth of the Nile. The sandstorms sometimes covered this bog with a layer of sand so that it looked like the surrounding desert. Tradition tells that armies invading Egypt marched upon this sand-covered bog, and were ingulfed and lost. Apply this figure to the conduct of the ministry.
Evidence-room full of titles: governmental record room, where records of grants, titles, etc., were kept.
^[ 68. Had solemnly abjured all the rights of citizens. Dr. Johnson, in his pamphlet Taxation no Tyranny, said that when the colonists left 'the mother country they voluntarily gave up the Englishman's right to vote; and that after having given it up voluntarily they had no right to claim it again.
• 69. To admit the people of oar colonies into an interest in the Constitution. This is Burke's answer to the question, " What shall our concession be? " — the beginning of the second half of the brief proper. The student should, at any expense of effort whatever, study the method by which Burke proves the possibility of the success of his proposition by the four examples given in the succeeding paragraphs.
Tf 70. The repeal of a revenue act: the repeal of the Stamp Act, Understood principle: that is, the repeal of the Stamp Act in 1766 as an act for raising revenue, without saying anything about giving up the right to control trade, was then sufficient to bring about peace; but such a repeal now would not suffice, because we have heretofore followed up our repeals by the enactment of acts equally obnoxious, and the colonists have therefore grown suspicious. Burke's statement finds proof in the fact that the Congress at Philadelphia, in 1774, expressly stated, in an address to the home government, that the repeal of the Stamp Act had " restored the former unsuspecting confidence of the colonies in the mother country " (see T[ 9 and note on same). But now a simple repeal will not do; an absolute promise that no further attempt at taxation will be made is necessary to restore peace.
Tf 71. American financiers: members of Parliament who still adhered to the theory that America could be made to yield a revenue for England.
Taxation...trade laws: had no further hope that a revenue could be raised in the colonies, but feared that, if England renounced the right of taxing the colonies directly, the colonies would demand as a further concession the repeal of the Navigation Acts, which forced all American trade into the hands of British merchants whose wealth did pay a tax, thus raising a revenue from America in an indirect manner.
A gentleman of real moderation: a Mr. Rice, who by this mention of Burke's was rescued from oblivion.
T 72. Acts of Navigation. The Navigation Acts were planned for the purpose of making the colonies useful and profitable to the mother country by compelling the colonists to buy their goods in England at a high price and to sell their goods in England at a low price. The colonists must sell their exports in England or south of Cape Finisterre, which prevented their trading with the Dutch, England's great commercial rival. By these acts the colonists were forbidden the purchasing of goods except in England, and the transporting of goods in any except English vessels manned by English seamen. Other trade acts followed, forbidding the erection of iron works, prohibiting the manufacture of steel, and restricting the making of beaver hats, etc.. in order to prevent the colonists' competing with English manufacturers. It was unlawful " to make even a nail for horseshoes."
T 74. The pamphlet: by Dr. Tucker, Dean of Gloucester, of whom Burke sarcastically says, in his Speech on American Taxation: " This Dr. Tucker is already a dean, and his earnest labors in this vineyard will, I suppose, raise him to a bishopric." Lecky, in Chapter XI of his England in the Eighteenth Century, calls Tucker " one of the best living writers on all questions of trade." Burke's reference is to a pamphlet in Dr. Tucker's Four Tracts on Political and Commercial Subjects. The pamphlet referred to is entitled The True Interest of Great Britain set forth in regard to the Colonies and the only Means of Living in Peace and Harmony with them. Dr. Tucker urged that separation was the only remedy; that trade always flows in the most lucrative channels; that as England could supply them with goods more cheaply than could any other country, their trade would come to England any way; therefore, in case of separation, England would have their trade without the expense of forcing it from them. Despite Burke's sarcasm, we know now that Dr. Tucker was right. For a good discussion of the trade relations of Great Britain and the American colonies, look through Book IV of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, especially Chapter VII.
T[ 75. A shadow of evidence. This statement is hardly correct, for a glance through any good history of the colonies will show that there was constant chafing in the colonies under the Navigation and Trade Acts. It was a long-cherished sense of the injustice of these acts that brought the people to a readiness to resist the Stamp Acts (see Bancroft's United States, vol.
158 BUKKE'S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION Tf 76. But the colonies will go further. This is a further objection raised by Burke's opponents to a repeal of the revenue laws (see note on ^f 71). It means that if the revenue laws were repealed, »od the "trade laws" (Navigation Acts) in turn successfully attacked, the colonists would then "go further," and demand entire self-government, thus dissolving the " unity of the empire." Burke refutes this in f f 118-122.
If 79. The kings of Spain of the Austrian family: Emperor Charles the Fifth and his descendants of the house of Hapsburg.
Philip the Second: son and successor to Charles the Fifth; was the husband of Queen Mary of England, daughter of Henry the Eighth. Philip was the Spanish king who sent the Armada to contest with Elizabeth for the crown of England. He was a selfish, crafty prince, of deep and far-reaching, but not always successful, policy.
I consult the genius of the English Constitution. By " the genius of the English Constitution " he means the spirit of liberty in which it was formed, and the want of parliamentary action under it according to the letter rather than the spirit. (The student is supposed to know that the English Constitution is not a written document, like the Constitution of the United States, but that it consists of the principles underlying the vast body of past charters, traditions, precedents, parliamentary acts, etc.) Burke purposes showing what action the English Constitution dictates in the present case by the precedents set in the past with respect to Ireland, Wales, Chester, and Durham. It is safer, he says, to consult the genius of the English Constitution than the genius of George the Third — whom he means, of course, in his reference to Philip the Second.
^f 80. The English conquest. The conquest of Ireland was accomplished in the reign of Henry the Second, between the years 1169 a<id 1175. The final legislative union of England and Ireland was not consummated until January, 1801. For the terms of this union, see Cooley's Ulackstone, p. 103, footnote.
It is evident that, in a book of this character, no " note " can make, this paragraph intelligible to the student. The student will do well to read the matter up, under the word " Ireland," in Larned's History for Ready Reference, vol. iii, pp. 1745-1778, or in any good history of Ireland or England.
Magna Charta. English freedom began not with the common people, but with the barons, knights, and clergy, who, in 1215, at Runnymede, compelled King John to sign Magna Charta, which contained " the roots of our primitive Constitution." For Magna Charta. see any good encyclopaedia, or any good English history. The entire text may be found in Larned's History for Ready Reference, vol. ii, p. 803. Stubbs, in his Constitutional History of England, chap, xii, p. 155, says: " The whole of the constitutional history of England is little more than a commentary on Magna Charta."
All Ireland. English law and liberty, when transferred to Ireland, extended over a part of Ireland only, to a boundary line called "the pale," which marked the confines of what might be called English Ireland. For an extended explanation of " the pale," see Larned's History for Ready Reference, p. 1761.
Sir John Davies: an able English poet and judge, born 1570, died 1626. In 1603 solicitor-general of Ireland, later attorneygeneral of Ireland. In 1612 he published the work referred to by Burke. Its title was Discovery of the True Causes why Ireland was never entirely Subdued nor brought under Obedience of the Crown of England until the Beginning of his Majesty's Happy Reign. " His Majesty " was James the First. Davies entered Parliament in 1621, and was made lord chief justice in 1626.
Vain projects: reference to the attempted military subjugation of Ireland in the sixteenth century. The expedition of the ill-fated Earl of Essex was one of these.
Civility: civilization.
Changed the people: populated portions of Ireland with English and Scotch immigrants.
Altered the religion: from Roman Catholic to the Church of England.
Deposed kings: Charles the First and James the Second.
Eestored them: Charles the Second.
Altered the succession. The Act of Settlement, passed in 1701, deposed the house of Stuart and placed the succession in the house of Hanover. George the First, of the house of Hanover, came to the throne of England in 1714.
Usurpation: reference to the period of Cromwellian " usurpa- Restoration of monarchy. Charles the Second was "restored" in 1660.
Glorious revolution: that of 1688-'89, which deposed James the Second and placed William and Mary upon the throne. " Glorious " because, as a triumph of the Whigs, it coincided with Burke's ideas.
Great and flourishing kingdom. Burke's Irish nativity probably caused him to draw somewhat on his imagination here, for Ireland at that time was hardly a " great and flourishing kingdom."
160 BURKETS SPEECH ON CONCiLiATION Confusion of mighty troubles: reference to methods of govern* ment used in the times of Cromwell and William of Orange.
An exception to prove the rule: that is, the fact that a few cases of actual subjugation by arms, such as that of Cromwell and William the Third, stand out prominently because all other similar attempts were more or less failures. They only emphasized the failure of the idea of military subjugation.
1[ 81. Reduced by Henry the Third. Look up in Green's Short History of the English People.
Edward the.First: ditto.
Lords marchers: noblemen who received grants of large estates on the borders between England and Scotland and England and Wales, the condition of the grant being that they should protect the frontier from inroads of the semibarbarous Scots and Welsh. They had absolute power in the marches or territory that they controlled. The student can get a clear idea of lords marchers on the Welsh border by reading Scott's The Betrothed.
^ 82. You prohibit by proclamation. In the troublous time mentioned by Burke English consuls and agents were required by proclamation to keep a strict watch upon all shipments, in order to prevent the colonists from securing arms and munitions of war.