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 don't mention Bristol as if that were the part furthest gone in this
mortification. Far from it: I know that there is, rather, a little more
life in us than in any other place. In Liverpool they are literally
almost ruined by this American war; but they love it as they suffer from
it. In short, from whatever I see, and from whatever quarter I hear, I
am convinced that everything that is not absolute stagnation is
evidently a party-spirit very adverse to our politics, and to the
principles from whence they arise. There are manifest marks of the
resurrection of the Tory party. They no longer criticize, as all
disengaged people in the world will, on the acts of government; but they
are silent under every evil, and hide and cover up every ministerial
blander and misfortune, with the officious zeal of men who think they
have a party of their own to support in power. The Tories do
universally think their power and consequence involved in the success of
this American business. The clergy are astonishingly warm in it; and
what the Tories are, when embodied and united with their natural head,
the crown, and animated by their clergy, no man knows better than
yourself. As to the Whigs, I think them far from extinct. They are, what
they always were, (except by the able use of opportunities,) by far the
weakest party in this country. They have not yet learned the application
of their principles to the present state of things; and as to the
Dissenters, the main effective part of the Whig strength, they are, to
use a favorite expression of our American campaign style, "not all in
force." They will do very little, and, as far as I can discern, are
rather intimidated than provoked at the denunciations of the court in
the Archbishop of York's sermon. I thought that sermon rather imprudent,
when I first saw it; but it seems to have done its business.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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