The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 07 (of 12)Burke, Edmund
Religion
The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 07 (of 12)
Burke, Edmund
Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1760-1820; Political science -- Early works to 1800
The honorable gentleman sees that I respect the principle upon which he
goes, as well as his intentions and his abilities. He will believe that
I do not differ from him wantonly and on trivial grounds. He is very
sure that it was not his embracing one way which determined me to take
the other. _I_ have not in newspapers, to derogate from his fair fame
with the nation, printed the first rude sketch of his bill with
ungenerous and invidious comments. _I_ have not, in conversations
industriously circulated about the town, and talked on the benches of
this House, attributed his conduct to motives low and unworthy, and as
groundless as they are injurious. _I_ do not affect to be frightened
with this proposition, as if some hideous spectre had started from hell,
which was to be sent back again by every form of exorcism and every kind
of incantation. _I_ invoke no Acheron to overwhelm him in the whirlpools
of its muddy gulf. _I_ do not tell the respectable mover and seconder,
by a perversion of their sense and expressions, that their proposition
halts between the ridiculous and the dangerous. _I_ am not one of those
who start up, three at a time, and fall upon and strike at him with so
much eagerness that our daggers hack one another in his sides. My
honorable friend has not brought down a spirited imp of chivalry to win
the first achievement and blazon of arms on his milk-white shield in a
field listed against him,--nor brought out the generous offspring of
lions, and said to them,--"Not against that side of the forest! beware
of that!--here is the prey, where you are to fasten your paws!"--and
seasoning his unpractised jaws with blood, tell him,--"This is the milk
for which you are to thirst hereafter!" _We_ furnish at his expense no
holiday,--nor suspend hell, that a crafty Ixion may have rest from his
wheel,--nor give the common adversary (if he be a common adversary)
reason to say,--"I would have put in my word to oppose, but the
eagerness of your allies in your social war was such that I could not
break in upon you." I hope he sees and feels, and that every member sees
and feels along with him, the difference between amicable dissent and
civil discord.
SPEECH
ON A
MOTION MADE IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS,
MAY 7, 1782,
FOR
A COMMITTEE TO INQUIRE INTO THE STATE OF THE REPRESENTATION OF THE
COMMONS IN PARLIAMENT.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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