had done all that the old condition of things dictated to render our judges erect and independent; but they will naturally fail on the side upon which they had taken no precautions. The judicial magistrates will find themselves safe as against the crown, whose will is not their tenure; the power of executing their office will be held at the pleasure of those who deal out fame, or abuse, as they think fit. They will begin rather to consult their own repose and their own popularity than the critical and perilous trust that is in their hands. They will speculate on consequences, when they see at court an ambassador whose robes are lined with a scarlet dyed in the blood of judges. It is no wonder, nor are they to blame, when they are to consider how they shall answer for their conduct to the criminal of to-day, turned into the magistrate of to morrow. The pressThe armyWhen thus the helm of justice is abandoned, an universal abandonment of all other posts will succeed. Government will be for a while the sport of contending factions, who, whilst they fight with one another, will all strike at her. She will be buffeted and beat forward and backward by the conflict of those billows; until at length, tumbling from the Gallic coast, the victorious tenth wave shall ride, like the bore, over all the rest, and poop the shattered, weather-beaten, leaky, water-logged vessel, and sink her to the bottom of the abyss. Among other miserable remedies that have been found in the materia medica of the old college, a change of ministry will be proposed; and probably will take place. They who go out can never long with zeal and good will support government in the hands of those they hate. In a situation of fatal dependence on popularity, and without one aid from the little remaining power of the crown, it is not to be expected that they will take on them that odium which more or less attaches upon every exertion of strong power. The ministers of popularity will lose all their credit at a stroke, if they pursue any of those means necessary to give life, vigour, and consistence to government. They will be considered as venal wretches, apostates, recreant to all their own principles, acts, and declarations. They cannot preserve their credit but by betraying that authority of which they are the guardians. To be sure, no prognosticating symptoms of these things have as yet appeared: nothing even resembling their beginnings. May they never appear! May these prognostications of the author be justly laughed at, and speedily forgotten. If nothing as yet to cause them has discovered itself, let us consider, in the author's excuse, that we have not yet seen a jacobin legation in England. The natural, declared, sworn ally of sedition, has not yet fixed its head-quarters in London. There never was a political contest, upon better or worse grounds, that by the heat of party spirit may not ripen into civil confusion. If ever a party adverse to the crown should be in a condition here publicly to declare itself, and to divide, however unequally, the natural force of the kingdom, they are sure of an aid of fifty thousand men, at ten days warning, from the opposite coast of France. But against this infusion of a foreign force, the crown has its guarantees, old and new. But I should be glad to hear something said of the assistance which loyal subjects in France have received from other powers in support of that lawful government which secured their lawful property. I should be glad to know, if they are so disposed to a neighbourly, provident, and sympathetic attention to their public engagements, by what means they are to come at us. Is it from the powerful states of Holland we are to reclaim our guarantee? Is it from the king of Prussia, and his steady good affections, and his powerful navy, that we are to look for the guarantee of our security? Is it from the Netherlands, which the French may cover with the swarms of their citizen-soldiers in twenty-four hours, that we are to look for this assistance? This is to suppose too that all these powers have no views offensive or necessities defensive of their own. They will cut out work for one another, and France will cut out work for them all. That the Christian religion cannot exist in this country with such a fraternity, will not, I think, be disputed with me. On that religion, according to our mode, all our laws and institutions stand as upon their base. That scheme is supposed in every transaction of life; and if that were done away, every thing else, as in France, must be changed along with it. Thus, religion perishing, and with it this constitution, it is a matter of endless meditation what order of things would follow it. But what disorder would fill the space between the present and that which is to come, in the gross, is no matter of doubtful conjecture. It is a great evil, that of a civil war. But in that state of things, a civil war which would give to good men and a good cause some means of struggle, is a blessing of comparison that England will not enjoy. The moment the struggle begins, fling indeed-There is no such euthanasia for it ends. They talk of Mr. Hume's euthanasia the British constitutionof the British constitution, gently expiring without a groan, in the paternal arms of a * * * mere monarchy. In a monarchy-fine tri- The manuscript copy of this letter ends here. MADAM, A LETTER TO THE EMPRESS OF RUSSIA. THE Comte de Woronzow, your imperial majesty's minister, and Mr. Fawkener, have informed me of the very gracious manner in which your imperial majesty, and after your example, the archduke and archduchess, have condescended to accept my humble endeavours in the service of that cause which connects the rights and duties of sovereigns with the true interest and happiness of their people. If, confiding in titles derived from your own goodness, I venture to address, directly to your imperial majesty, the expressions of my gratitude for so distinguished an honour, I hope it will not be thought a presumptuous intrusion. I hope, too, that the willing homage I pay to the high and ruling virtues which distinguish your imperial majesty, and which form the felicity of so large a part of the world, will not be looked upon as the language of adulation to power and greatness. In my humble situation, I can behold majesty in its splendour without being dazzled, and I am capable of respecting it in its fall. It is, madam, from my strong sense of what is due to dignity in undeserved misfortune, that I am led to felicitate your imperial majesty on the use you have lately made of your power. The princes and nobility of France, who from honour and duty, from blood and from principle, are attached to that unhappy crown, have experienced your favour and countenance: and there is no doubt, that they will finally enjoy the full benefit of your protection. The generosity of your imperial majesty has induced you to take an interest in their cause, and your sagacity has made you perceive, that in the case of the sovereign of France, the cause of all sovereigns is tried; that in the case of its church, the cause of all churches; and that in the case of its nobility is tried the cause of all the respectable orders of all society, and even of society itself. Your imperial majesty has sent your minister to reside where the crown of France, in this disastrous eclipse of royalty, can alone truly and freely be represented; that is, in its royal blood, where alone the nation can be represented—that is, in its natural and inherent dignity. A throne cannot be represented by a prison. The honour of a nation cannot be represented by an assembly which disgraces and degrades it; at Coblentz only the king and the nation of France are to be found. Your imperial majesty, who reigns and lives for glory, has nobly and wisely disdained to associate your crown with a faction which has for its object the subversion of all thrones. You have not recognised this universal public enemy as a part of the system of Europe. You have refused to sully the lustre of your empire by any communion with a body of fanatical usurpers and tyrants, drawn out of the dregs of society, and exalted to their evil eminence by the enormity of their crimes; an assemblage of tyrants, wholly destitute of any distinguished qualification, in a single person among them, that can command reverence from our reason, or seduce it from our prejudices. These enemies of sovereigns, if at all acknowledged, must be acknowledged on account of that enmity alone. They have nothing else to recommend them. Madam, it is dangerous to praise any human virtue before the accomplishment of the tasks which it imposes on itself. But in expressing my part of what, I hope, is, or will become, the general voice, in admiration of what you have done, I run no risk at all. With your imperial majesty, declaration and execution, beginning and conclusion, are, at their different seasons, one and the same thing. On the faith and declaration of some of the first potentates of Europe, several thousands of persons, comprehending the best men aud the best gentlemen in France, have given up their country, their houses, their fortunes, their professional situation, their all; and are now in foreign lands, struggling under the most grievous distresses. Whatever appearances may menace, nobody fears that they can be finally abandoned. Such a dereliction could not be without a strong imputation on the public and private honour of sovereignty itself, nor without an irreparable injury to its interests. It would give occasion to represent monarchs as natural enemies to each other; and that they never support or countenance any subjects of a brother prince, except when they rebel against him. We individuals, mere spectators of the scene, but who seek our liberties under the shade of legal authority, and of course sympathize with the sufferers in that cause, never can permit ourselves to believe that such an event can disgrace the history of our time. The only thing to be feared is delay; in which are included many mischiefs. The constancy of the oppressed will be broken; the power of tyrants will be confirmed. Already the multitude of French officers, drawn from their several corps, by hopes inspired by the freely declared disposition of sovereigns, have left all the posts, in which they might one day have effectually served the good cause abandoned to the enemy. Your imperial majesty's just influence, which is still greater than your extensive power, will animate and expedite the efforts of other sovereigns. From your wisdom other states will learn, that they who wait until all the powers of Europe are at once in motion can never move at all. It would add to the unexampled calamities of our time, if the uncommon union of sentiment in so many powers should prove the very cause of defeating the benefit which ought to flow from their general good disposition. No sovereign can run any risk from the designs of other powers, whilst engaged in this glorious and necessary work. If any attempt could be feared, your imperial majesty's power and justice would secure your allies against all danger. Madam, your glory will be complete, if after having given peace to Europe by your moderation, you shall bestow stability on all its governments by your vigour and decision. The debt which your imperial majesty's august predecessors have contracted to the antient manners of Europe, by means of which they civilized a vast empire, will be nobly repaid by preserving those manners from the hideous change with which they are now menaced. By the intervention of Russia the world will be preserved from barbarism and ruin. A private individual, of a remote country, in himself wholly without importance, unauthorized and unconnected, not as an English subject, but as a citizen of the world, presumes to submit his thoughts to one of the greatest and wisest sovereigns that Europe has seen. He does it without fear, because he does not involve in his weakness (if such it is )his king, his country, or his friends. He is not afraid that he shall offend your imperial majesty; because, secure in itself, true greatness is always accessible; and be cause respectfully to speak what we conceive to be truth is the best which can be paid to true dignity. I am, madam, with the utmost possible respect and veneration, Your imperial majesty's EDM. BURKE. Beaconsfield, November 1st, 1791. proposed absentee tax is its tendency to separate friends, and to make as ugly breaches in private society as it must make in the unity of the great political body. I am sure, that much of the satisfaction of some circles in London will be lost by it. Do you think that our friend Mrs. Vesey, will suffer her husband to vote for a tax that is to destroy the evenings at Bolton Row? I trust we shall have other supporters of the same sex, equally powerful, and equally deserving to be so, who will not abandon the common cause of their own liberties and our satisfactions. We shall be barbarised on both sides of the water, if we do not see one another now and then. We shall sink into surly, brutish Johns, and you will degenerate into wild Irish. It is impossible that we should be the wiser, or the more agreeable; certainly we shall not love one another the better for this forced separation, which our ministers, who have already done so much for the dissolution of every other sort of good connection, are now meditating for the further improvement of this too well united empire. Their next step will be to encourage all the colonies, about thirty separate governments, to keep their people from all intercourse with each other, and with the mother country. A gentleman of New-York or Barbadoes will be as much gazed at as a strange animal from Nova-Zembla or Otaheite; and those rogues, the travellers, will tell us what stories they please about poor old Ireland. entertain in my mind any thing invidious con cerning the superintending authority of Great Britain. But if it be true, that the several bodies which make up this complicated mass, are to be preserved as one empire, an authority sufficient to preserve that unity, and by its equal weight and pressure to consolidate the various parts that compose it, must reside somewhere: that somewhere can only be in England. Possibly any one member, distinctly taken, might decide in favour of that residence within itself; but certainly no member would give its voice for any other except this. So that I look upon the residence of the supreme power to be settled here; not by force or tyranny, or even by mere long usage, but by the very nature of things, and the joint consent of the whole body. If all this be admitted, then without question this country must have the sole right to the imperial legislation: by which I mean that law which regulates the polity and œeconomy of the several parts, as they relate to one another and to the whole. But if any of the parts, which (not for oppression, but for order) are placed in a subordinate situation, will assume to themselves the power of hindering or checking the resort of their municipal subjects to the centre, or even to any part of the empire, they arrogate to themselves the imperial rights, which do not, which cannot belong to them, and, so far as in them lies, destroy the happy arrangement of the entire empire. In all seriousness (though I am a great deal A free communication, by discretionary remore than half serious in what I have been sidence, is necessary to all the other purposes saying) I look upon this projected tax in a of communication. For what purpose are the very evil light; I think it is not advisable; I Irish and plantation laws sent hither, but as am sure it is not necessary; and as it is not a means of preserving this sovereign constitumere matter of finance, but involves a political tion? Whether such a constitution was origiquestion of much importance, I consider the nally right or wrong, this is not the time of principle and precedent as far worse than the day to dispute. If any evils arise from it, let thing itself. You are too kind in imagining I us not strip it of what may be useful in it. can suggest any thing new upon the subject. By taking the English privy council into your The objections to it are very glaring, and must legislature, you obtain a new, a further, and, strike the eyes of all those who have not their possibly, a more liberal consideration of all reasons for shutting them against evident truth. your acts. If a local legislature shall, by obI have no feelings or opinions on this subject lique means, tend to deprive any of the people which I do not partake with all the sensible of this benefit, and shall make it penal to them and informed people that I meet with. to follow into England the laws which may first I could scarcely meet with any one who affect them, then the English privy council will could believe that this scheme originated from have to decide upon your acts without those the English government. They considered it lights that may enable them to judge upon not only as absurd, but as something mon- what grounds you made them, or how far strous and unnatural. In the first instance, they ought to be modified, received, or rejected. it strikes at the power of this country; in the end, at the union of the whole empire. I do not mean to express, most certainly I do not At To what end is the ultimate appeal in judicature lodged in this kingdom, if men may be disabled from following their suits here, and may be taxed into an absolute denial of justice? You observe, my dear sir, that I do not assert, that, in all cases, two shillings will necessarily cut off this means of correcting legislative and judicial mistakes, and thus amount to a denial of justice. I might indeed state cases, in which this very quantum of tax would be fully sufficient to defeat this right. But I argue not on the case, but on the principle, and I am sure the principle implies it. They who may restrain, may prohibit. They who may impose two shillings, may impose ten shillings in the pound; and those who may condition the tax to six months annual absence may carry that condition to six weeks, or even to six days, and thereby totally defeat the wise means which have been provided for extensive and impartial justice, and for orderly, well-poised and well-connected government. What is taxing the resort to and residence in any place, but declaring, that your connection with that place is a grievance? Is not such an Irish tax, as is now proposed, a virtual declaration, that England is a foreign country, and a renunciation on your part of the principle of common naturalization, which runs through this whole empire. Do you, or does any Irish gentleman think it a mean privilege, that, the moment he sets his foot upon this ground, he is to all intents and purposes an Englishman? You will not be pleased with a law which, by its operation tends to disqualify you from a seat in this parliament; and if your own virtue or fortune, or if that of your children should carry you or them to it, should you like to be excluded from the possibility of a peerage in this kingdom? If in Ireland we lay it down as a maxim, that a residence in Great Britain is a political evil, and to be discouraged by penal taxes, you must necessarily reject all the privileges and benefits which are connected with such a residence. I can easily conceive, that a citizen of Dublin, who looks no further than his counter, may think that Ireland will be repaid for such a loss by any small diminution of taxes, or any increase in the circulation of money that may be laid out in the purchase of claret or groceries in his corporation. In such a man an errour of that kind, as it would be natural, would be excusable. But I cannot think that any educated man, any man who looks with an enlightened eye on the interest of Ireland, can believe that it is not highly for the advantage of Ireland, that this parliament, which, whether right or wrong, whether we will or not, will make some laws to bind Ireland, should always have in it some persons, who, by connection, by property, or by early prepossessions and affections, are attached to the welfare of that country. I am so clear upon this point, not only from the clear reason of the thing, but from the constant course of my observation, by now having sat eight sessions in parliament, that I declare it to you as my sincere opinion, that (if you must do either the one or the other) it would be wiser by far, and far better for Ireland, that some new privileges should attend the estates of Irishmen, members of the two houses here, than that their characters should be stained by penal imposi tions, and their properties loaded by unequal and unheard-of modes of taxation. I do really trust, that when the matter comes a little to be considered, a majority of our gentlemen will consent to establish such a principle of disqualification against themselves and their posterity, and for the sake of gratifying the schemes of a transitory administration of the cock-pit or the castle, or in compliance with the lightest part of the most vulgar and transient popularity, fix so irreparable an injury on the permanent interest of their country. This law seems, , therefore, to me, to go directly against the fundamental points of the legislative and judicial constitution of these kingdoms, and against the happy communion of their privileges. But there is another matter in the tax proposed, that contradicts as essentially a very great principle necessary for preserving the union of the various parts of a state; because it does, in effect, discountenance mutual intermarriage and inheritance; things that bind countries more closely together than any laws or constitutions whatsoever. Is it right that a woman who marries into Ireland, and perhaps well purchases her jointure or her dower there, should not, after her husband's death, have it in her choice to return to her country and her friends without being taxed for it? If an Irish heiress should marry into an English family, and that great property in both countries should thereby come to be united in this common issue, shall the descendant of that marriage abandon his natural connection, his family interests, his public and private duties, and be compelled to take up his residence in Ireland? Is there any sense or any justice in it, unless you affirm that there shall be no such intermarriage and no such mutual inheritance between the natives? Is there a shadow of reason, that because a Lord Rockingham, a Duke of Devonshire, a Sir Geoge Saville, possess property in Ireland, |