The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 04 (of 12)Burke, Edmund
Philosophy
The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 04 (of 12)
Burke, Edmund
Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1760-1820; Political science -- Early works to 1800
no studied insults on religion, morals, or manners; no spoil; no
confiscation; no citizen beggared; none imprisoned; none exiled: the
whole was effected with a policy, a discretion, an unanimity and
secrecy, such as have never been before known on any occasion; but such
wonderful conduct was reserved for this glorious conspiracy in favor of
the true and genuine rights and interests of men. Happy people, if they
know to proceed as they have begun! Happy prince, worthy to begin with
splendor or to close with glory a race of patriots and of kings, and to
leave
A name, which every wind to heaven would bear,
Which men to speak, and angels joy to hear!
To finish all,--this great good, as in the instant it is, contains in it
the seeds of all further improvement, and may be considered as in a
regular progress, because founded on similar principles, towards the
stable excellence of a British Constitution.
Here was a matter for congratulation and for festive remembrance through
ages. Here moralists and divines might indeed relax in their temperance,
to exhilarate their humanity. But mark the character of our faction.
All their enthusiasm is kept for the French Revolution. They cannot
pretend that France had stood so much in need of a change as Poland.
They cannot pretend that Poland has not obtained a better system of
liberty or of government than it enjoyed before. They cannot assert that
the Polish Revolution cost more dearly than that of France to the
interests and feelings of multitudes of men. But the cold and
subordinate light in which they look upon the one, and the pains they
take to preach up the other of these Revolutions, leave us no choice in
fixing on their motives. Both Revolutions profess liberty as their
object; but in obtaining this object the one proceeds from anarchy to
order, the other from order to anarchy. The first secures its liberty by
establishing its throne; the other builds its freedom on the subversion
of its monarchy. In the one, their means are unstained by crimes, and
their settlement favors morality; in the other, vice and confusion are
in the very essence of their pursuit, and of their enjoyment. The
circumstances in which these two events differ must cause the difference
we make in their comparative estimation. These turn the scale with the
societies in favor of France. _Ferrum est quod amant_. The frauds, the
violences, the sacrileges, the havoc and ruin of families, the
dispersion and exile of the pride and flower of a great country, the
disorder, the confusion, the anarchy, the violation of property, the
cruel murders, the inhuman confiscations, and in the end the insolent
domination of bloody, ferocious, and senseless clubs,--these are the
things which they love and admire. What men admire and love they would
surely act. Let us see what is done in France; and then let us
undervalue any the slightest danger of falling into the hands of such a
merciless and savage faction!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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