The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 05 (of 12)Burke, Edmund
History
The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 05 (of 12)
Burke, Edmund
Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1760-1820; Political science -- Early works to 1800
I don't find it denied, that, when a treaty is entered into for peace, a
demand will be made on the Regicides to surrender a great part of their
conquests on the Continent. 'Will they, in the present state of the war,
make that surrender without an equivalent? This Continental cession must
of course be made in favor of that party in the alliance that has
suffered losses. That party has nothing to furnish towards an
equivalent. What equivalent, for instance, has Holland to offer, who has
lost her all? What equivalent can come from the Emperor, every part of
whose territories contiguous to France is already within the pale of the
Regicide dominion? What equivalent has Sardinia to offer for Savoy, and
for Nice,--I may say, for her whole being? What has she taken from the
faction of France? She has lost very near her all, and she has gained
nothing. What equivalent has Spain to give? Alas! she has already paid
for her own ransom the fund of equivalent,--and a dreadful equivalent it
is, to England and to herself. But I put Spain out of the question: she
is a province of the Jacobin empire, and she must make peace or war
according to the orders she receives from the Directory of Assassins. In
effect and substance, her crown is a fief of Regicide.
Whence, then, can the compensation be demanded? Undoubtedly from that
power which alone has made some conquests. That power is England. Will
the Allies, then, give away their ancient patrimony, that England may
keep islands in the West Indies? They never can protract the war in good
earnest for that object; nor can they act in concert with us, in our
refusal to grant anything towards their redemption. In that case we are
thus situated: either we must give Europe, bound hand and foot, to
France, or we must quit the West Indies without any one object, great or
small, towards indemnity and security. I repeat it, without any
advantage whatever: because, supposing that our conquest could comprise
all that France ever possessed in the tropical America, it never can
amount in any fair estimation to a fair equivalent for Holland, for the
Austrian Netherlands, for the Lower Germany,--that is, for the whole
ancient kingdom or circle of Burgundy, now under the yoke of Regicide,
to say nothing of almost all Italy, under the same barbarous domination.
If we treat in the present situation of things, we have nothing in our
hands that can redeem Europe. Nor is the Emperor, as I have observed,
more rich in the fund of equivalents.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account