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
I need say no more on the insult offered not only to all equity and
justice, but to the common sense of mankind, in deciding legal property
by physical principles, and establishing the convenience of a party as a
rule of public law. The noble advocate for peace has, indeed, perfectly
well exploded this daring and outrageous system of pride and tyranny. I
am most happy in commending him, when he writes like himself. But hear
still further and in the same good strain the great patron and advocate
of amity with this accommodating, mild, and unassuming power, when he
reports to you the law they give, and its immediate effects:--"They
amount," says he, "to the sacrifice of powers that have been the most
nearly connected with us,--the direct or indirect annexation to France
of all the ports of the Continent from Dunkirk to Hamburg,--an immense
accession of territory,--and, in one word, THE ABANDONMENT OF THE
INDEPENDENCE OF EUROPE!" This is the LAW (the author and I use no
different terms) which this new government, almost as soon as it could
cry in the cradle, and as one of the very first acts by which it
auspicated its entrance into function, the pledge it gives of the
firmness of its policy,--such is the law that this proud power
prescribes to abject nations. What is the comment upon this law by the
great jurist who recommends us to the tribunal which issued the decree?
"An obedience to it would be" (says he) "dishonorable to us, and exhibit
us to the present age and to posterity as submitting to the law
prescribed to us by our enemy."
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