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
As to foreign powers, so long as they were conjoined with Great Britain
in this contest, so long they were treated as the most abandoned
tyrants, and, indeed, the basest of the human race. The moment any of
them quits the cause of this government, and of all governments, he is
rehabilitated, his honor is restored, all attainders are purged. The
friends of Jacobins are no longer despots; the betrayers of the common
cause are no longer traitors.
That you may not doubt that they look on this war as a civil war, and
the Jacobins of France as of their party, and that they look upon us,
though locally their countrymen, in reality as enemies, they have never
failed to run a parallel between our late civil war and this war with
the Jacobins of France. They justify their partiality to those Jacobins
by the partiality which was shown by several here to the Colonies, and
they sanction their cry for peace with the Regicides of France by some
of our propositions for peace with the English in America.
This I do not mention as entering into the controversy how far they are
right or wrong in this parallel, but to show that they do make it, and
that they do consider themselves as of a party with the Jacobins of
France. You cannot forget their constant correspondence with the
Jacobins, whilst it was in their power to carry it on. When the
communication is again opened, the interrupted correspondence will
commence. We cannot be blind to the advantage which such a party affords
to Regicide France in all her views,--and, on the other hand, what an
advantage Regicide France holds out to the views of the republican party
in England. Slightly as they have considered their subject, I think this
can hardly have escaped the writers of political ephemerides for any
month or year. They have told us much of the amendment of the Regicides
of France, and of their returning honor and generosity. Have they told
anything of the reformation and of the returning loyalty of the Jacobins
of England? Have they told us of _their_ gradual softening towards
royalty? Have they told us what measures _they_ are taking for "putting
the crown in commission," and what approximations of any kind _they_ are
making towards the old Constitution of their country? Nothing of this.
The silence of these writers is dreadfully expressive. They dare not
touch the subject. But it is not annihilated by their silence, nor by
our indifference. It is but too plain that our Constitution cannot exist
with such a communication. Our humanity, our manners, our morals, our
religion, cannot stand with such a communication. The Constitution is
made by those things, and for those things: without them it cannot
exist; and without them it is no matter whether it exists or not.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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