284

ON THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

"At the same time that I would cut up the very roots of Atheism, I would respect all conscience; all conscience that is really such, and which perhaps its very tenderness proves to be sincere. I wish to see the Established Church of England great and powerful; I wish to see her foundations laid low and deep, that she may crush the giant powers of rebellious darkness: I would have her head raised up to that Heaven to which she conducts me. I would have her open wide her hospitable gates by a noble and liberal comprehension, but I would have no breaches in her wall; I would have her cherish all those who are within, and pity all those who are without; I would have her a common blessing to the world, an example, if not an instructor, to those who have not the happiness to belong to her; I would have her give a lesson of peace to mankind, that a vexed and wandering generation might be taught to seek for repose and toleration in the maternal bosom of Christian charity, and not in the harlot lap of infidelity and indifference. Nothing has driven people more into that house of seduction than the mutual hatred of Christian congregations. Long may we enjoy our Church under a learned and edifying Episcopacy."

In the debates on the affairs of India in the following year he also participated, astonishing his hearers by the vast extent of his information. He took advantage of the recess to pay a visit to France, where Marie Antoinette was dazzling all eyes by her young fresh loveliness. So keen an observer could not but be appalled by the corrupt social condition of the country. What alarmed him

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most was the contempt into which religion had fallen; and in the next session of Parliament he did not fail to point out this "conspiracy of Atheism" to the watchful jealousy of governments; and though not fond of calling in the aid of the secular arm to suppress doctrines and opinions, yet if ever it were raised it should be, he said, against those enemies of their kind, who would take from man the noblest prerogative of his nature, that of being a religious animal. "Already, under the systematic attacks of these men, I see many of the props of good government beginning to fail. I see propagated principles which will not leave to religion even a toleration, and make virtue herself less than a name."

The American difficulty was daily becoming more serious, and all true statesmen felt that a conciliatory policy had become the duty and the safety of England. In the session of 1775,* following up his action in the previous year, Burke introduced thirteen resolutions for this purpose, founding them on a bill which had been drawn up by the Earl of Chatham a few weeks before. The House, sharing the excited feelings of the country, and blind to the perils of the course on which it had entered, refused to consider them seriously. They afforded an opportunity, however, for one of Burke's ablest oratorical performances, which, as Massey remarks, will enable future ages to appreciate the genius of its author, when the fame of his great contemporaries rests only on tradition. "My proposition," he said,

Burke sat in this parliament as member for Bristol, which had returned him free of expense.

286

A PROTEST AGAINST WAR.

"is peace. Not peace through the medium of war. Not peace to be hunted through the labyrinth of intricate and endless negotiations. Not peace to arise out of universal discord, fomented on principle in all parts of the Empire. Not peace to depend on the judicial determination of perplexing questions; or the precise marking the shadowy boundaries of a complex government. It is simple peace, sought in its natural course, and in its ordinary haunts. It is peace, sought in the spirit of peace." Again, he said "I look on force :-"I not only as an odious, but as a feeble instrument for preserving a people so numerous, so active, so growing, so spirited as this, in a profitable and subordinate connection with us. First, the use of force alone is but temporary. It may subdue for a moment, but it does not remove the necessity of subduing again. A nation is not governed, which is perpetually to be conquered." He added: "Three thousand miles of ocean lie between you and the Colonies. No contrivance can weaken the effect of this distance in weakening government. Seas roll, and months pass between the order and the execution; and the want of a speedy explanation on a single point, is enough to defeat a whole system. You have indeed winged Ministers of vengeance, who carry bolts in their talons to the uttermost verge of the sea. But then a power steps in, which limits the arrogance of raging passions and furious elements, and says, 'So far shalt thou go, and no farther!' Who are you that should fret and rage, and bite the chains of nature? Nothing worse happens to you than does to all nations who have extensive empire. From all

your

APOSTROPHE TO LORD BATHURST.

287

these causes a fierce spirit of liberty has grown up. The question is, not whether this spirit deserves praise or blame, but what, in the name of God, shall we do with it. You have before you the object, such as it is, with all its glories, all its imperfections on its head. We are strongly urged to determine something concerning it."

One of the most celebrated passages of this celebrated speech, was the apostrophe to the aged Lord Bathurst, in which the orator reviewed the progress of the Colonies:

"We stand," said Burke, "where we have an immense view of what is, and what is past. Clouds, indeed, and darkness, rest upon the future. Let us, however, before we descend from this noble eminence, reflect that this growth of our national prosperity has happened within the short period of the life of man. It has happened within sixty-eight years. There are those alive whose memory might touch the two extremities. For instance, my Lord Bathurst might remember all the stages of the progress. He was, in 1704, of an age at least to be made to comprehend such things. He was then old enough acta parentum jam legere, et quæ sit cognoscere virtus. Suppose, sir, that the angel of this auspicious youth, foreseeing the many virtues which made him one of the most fortunate men of his age, had opened to him in a vision that, when in the fourth generation, the third prince of the House of Brunswick had sat twelve years on the throne of that nation, which (by the happy issue of moderate and healing counsels) was to be made Great Britain, he should see his son Lord Chancellor

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SWIFT GROWTH OF AMERICA.

of England, turn back the current of hereditary dignity to its fountain, and raise him to an higher rank of peerage, whilst he enriched the family with a new one. If amidst these bright and happy scenes of honour and prosperity, that angel should have drawn up the curtain, and unfolded the rising glories of his country, and whilst he was gazing with grandeur on the then commercial grandeur of England, the genius should point out to him a little speck, scarce visible in the mass of the national interest, a small seminal principle rather than a formed body, and should tell him, 'Young man, there is America, which at this day serves for little more than to amuse you with stories of savage men and uncouth manners; yet shall, before you taste of death, show itself equal to the whole of that commerce which now attracts the envy of the world. Whatever England has been growing to by a progressive increase of improvement brought in by varieties of people, by succession of civilizing conquests and civilizing settlements, in a series of seventeen hundred years, you shall see as much added to her by America in the course of a single life!' If the state of his country had thus been foretold to him, would it not require all the sanguine credulity of youth, and all the fervid glow of enthusiasm, to make him believe it?" *

In another speech on the American question, discussing the alleged right of taxation, which the Ministerial

In Mrs. Piozzi's 'Anecdotes,' will be found Dr. Johnson's amusing burlesque of this memorable passage.