The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 02 (of 12)Burke, Edmund
Philosophy
The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 02 (of 12)
Burke, Edmund
Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1760-1820; Political science -- Early works to 1800
These are the points on which I rely for the merit of the plan. I pursue
economy in a secondary view, and only as it is connected with these
great objects. I am persuaded, that even for supply this scheme will be
far from unfruitful, if it be executed to the extent I propose it. I
think it will give to the public, at its periods, two or three hundred
thousand pounds a year; if not, it will give them a system of economy,
which is itself a great revenue. It gives me no little pride and
satisfaction to find that the principles of my proceedings are in many
respects the very same with those which are now pursued in the plans of
the French minister of finance. I am sure that I lay before you a scheme
easy and practicable in all its parts. I know it is common at once to
applaud and to reject all attempts of this nature. I know it is common
for men to say, that such and such things are perfectly right, very
desirable,--but that, unfortunately, they are not practicable. Oh, no,
Sir! no! Those things-which are not practicable are not desirable. There
is nothing in the world really beneficial that does not lie within the
reach of an informed understanding and a well-directed pursuit. There is
nothing that God has judged good for us that He has not given us the
means to accomplish, both in the natural and the moral world. If we cry,
like children, for the moon, like children we must cry on.
We must follow the nature of our affairs, and conform ourselves to our
situation. If we do, our objects are plain and compassable. Why should
we resolve to do nothing, because what I propose to you may not be the
exact demand of the petition, when we are far from resolved to comply
even with what evidently is so? Does this sort of chicanery become us?
The people are the masters. They have only to express their wants at
large and in gross. We are the expert artists, we are the skilful
workmen, to shape their desires into perfect form, and to fit the
utensil to the use. They are the sufferers, they tell the symptoms of
the complaint; but we know the exact seat of the disease, and how to
apply the remedy according to the rules of art. How shocking would it be
to see us pervert our skill into a sinister and servile dexterity, for
the purpose of evading our duty, and defrauding our employers, who are
our natural lords, of the object of their just expectations! I think the
whole not only practicable, but practicable in a very short time. If we
are in earnest about it, and if we exert that industry and those talents
in forwarding the work, which, I am afraid, may be exerted in impeding
it, I engage that the whole may be put in complete execution within a
year. For my own part, I have very little to recommend me for this or
for any task, but a kind of earnest and anxious perseverance of mind,
which, with all its good and all its evil effects, is moulded into my
constitution. I faithfully engage to the House, if they choose to
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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