The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 06 (of 12)Burke, Edmund
Philosophy
The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 06 (of 12)
Burke, Edmund
Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1760-1820; Political science -- Early works to 1800
"That strain I heard was of a higher mood." That declaration of our
sovereign was worthy of his throne. It is in a style which neither the
pen of the writer of October nor such a poor crow-quill as mine can ever
hope to equal. I am happy to enrich my letter with this fragment of
nervous and manly eloquence, which, if it had not emanated from the
awful authority of a throne, if it were not recorded amongst the most
valuable monuments of history, and consecrated in the archives of
states, would be worthy, as a private composition, to live forever in
the memory of men.
In those admirable pieces does his Majesty discover this new opinion of
his political security, in having the chair of the scorner, that is, the
discipline of atheism, and the block of regicide, set up by his side,
elevated on the same platform, and shouldering, with the vile image of
their grim and bloody idol, the inviolable majesty of his throne? The
sentiments of these declarations are the very reverse: they could not be
other. Speaking of the spirit of that usurpation, the royal manifesto
describes, with perfect truth, its internal tyranny to have been
established as the very means of shaking the security of all other
states,--as "_disposing arbitrarily of the property and blood of the
inhabitants of France, in order to disturb the tranquillity of other
nations, and to render all Europe the theatre of the same crimes and of
the same misfortunes_." It was but a natural inference from this fact,
that the royal manifesto does not at all rest the justification of this
war on common principles: that it was "_not only to defend his own
rights, and those of his allies_," but "_that all the dearest interests
of his people imposed upon him a duty still more important_,--_that of
exerting his efforts for the preservation of civil society itself, as
happily established among the nations of Europe_." On that ground, the
protection offered is to "those who, by declaring for a _monarchical
government_, shall shake off the yoke of a sanguinary anarchy." It is
for that purpose the declaration calls on them "to join the standard of
an _hereditary monarchy_,"--declaring that the _peace and safety_ of
this kingdom and the other powers of Europe "_materially depend on the
reestablishment of order in France_." His Majesty does not hesitate to
declare that "_the reestablishment of monarchy, in the person of Louis
the Seventeenth, and the lawful heirs of the crown, appears to him_ [his
Majesty] _the best mode of accomplishing these just and salutary
views_."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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