that the seduction of that part of mankind from and it is better to fail, if fail we must, in the the principles of religion, morality, subordination, paths of direct and manly, than of low and crookand social order, is the great object of the Jaco-ed, wisdom. bins. Let them grow lax, sceptical, careless, and indifferent with regard to religion, and so sure as we have an existence, it is not a zealous Anglican or Scottish church principle, but direct Jacobinism, which will enter into that breach. Two hundred years dreadfully spent in experiments to force that people to change the form of their religion have proved fruitless. You have now your choice, for full four-fifths of your people, of the catholick religion, or Jacobinism. If things appear to you to stand on this alternative, I think you will not be long in making your option. As to the capacity of sitting in parliament, after all the capacities for voting, for the army, for the navy, for the professions, for civil offices, it is a dispute de laná capriná, in my poor opinion; at least on the part of those who oppose it. In the first place, this admission to office, and this exclusion from parliament, on the principle of an exclusion from political power, is the very reverse of the principle of the English test act. If I were to form a judgment from experience rather than theory, I should doubt much whether the capacity for, or even the possession of, a seat in parliament, did really convey much of power to be properly called political. I have sat there, with some observation, for nine-and-twenty years, or thereabouts. The power of a member of parliament is uncertain and indirect: and if power rather than splendour and fame were the object, I should think, that any of the principal clerks in office, to say nothing of their superiours, (several of whom are disqualified by law for seats in parliament,) possess far more power than nine-tenths of the members of the house of commons. I might say this of men, who seemed from their fortunes, their weight in their country, and their talents, to be persons of figure there; and persons too not in opposition to the prevailing party in government. You have made, as you naturally do, a very able analysis of powers; and have separated, as the things are separable, civil from political powers. You start, too, a question, whether the civil can be secured without some share in the political. For my part, as abstract questions, I should find some difficulty in an attempt to resolve them. But as applied to the state of Ireland, to the form of our commonwealth, to the parties that divide us, and to the dispositions of the leading men in those parties, I cannot hesitate to lay before you my opinion, that whilst any kind of discouragements and disqualifications remain on the catholicks, an handle will be made, by a factious power, utterly to defeat the benefits of any civil rights they may apparently possess. I need not go to very remote But be they what they will, on a fair canvass of times for my examples. It was within the course the several prevalent parliamentary interests in of about a twelvemonth, that after parliament had Ireland, I cannot, out of the three hundred membeen led into a step, quite unparalleled in its re- bers, of whom the Irish parliament is composed, cords, after they had resisted all concession, and discover, that above three, or at the utmost four, even hearing, with an obstinacy equal to any catholicks would be returned to the house of comthing that could have actuated a party domina- mons. But suppose they should amount to thirty, tion in the second or eighth of Queen Anne, that is, to a tenth part, (a thing I hold impossible after the strange adventure of the grand juries, for a long series of years, and never very likely to and after parliament had listened to the sovereign happen,) what is this to those, who are to balance pleading for the emancipation of his subjects;-it them in the one house, and the clear and settled was after all this, that such a grudging and dis- majority in the other? For I think it absolutely content was expressed, as must justly have alarm-impossible that, in the course of many years, ed, as it did extremely alarm, the whole of the catholick body and I remember but one period in my whole life, (I mean the savage period between 1761 and 1767,) in which they have been more harshly or contumeliously treated, than since the last partial enlargement. And thus I am convinced it will be by paroxysms, as long as any stigma remains on them, and whilst they are considered as no better than half citizens. If they are kept such for any length of time, they will be made whole Jacobins. Against this grand and dreadful evil of our time (I do not love to cheat myself or others) I do not know any solid security whatsoever. But I am quite certain, that what will come nearest to it is to interest as many as you can in the present order of things, religiously, civilly, politically, by all the ties and principles, by which mankind are held. This is like to be effectual policy: I am sure it is honourable policy: above four or five peers should be created of that communion. In fact, the exclusion of them seems to me only to mark jealousy and suspicion, and not to provide security in any way. But I return to the old ground. The danger is not there:these are things long since done away. The grand controversy is no longer between you and them. Forgive this length. My pen has insensibly run on. You are yourself to blame, if you are much fatigued. I congratulate you on the auspicious opening of your session. Surely Great Britain and Ireland ought to join in wreathing a neverfading garland for the head of Grattan. Adieu! my dear Sir-good nights to you!-I never can have any. Yours always most sincerely, Jan. 29th, 1795. EDMUND BURKE. A SECOND LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE. MY DEAR SIR, IF I am not as early as I ought to be in my acknowledgments for your very kind letter, pray do me the justice to attribute my failure to its natural, and but too real, cause, a want of the most ordinary power of exertion, owing to the impressions made upon an old and infirm constitution by private misfortune and by publick calamity. It is true I make occasional efforts to rouse myself to something better-but I soon relapse into that state of languor, which must be the habit of my body and understanding to the end of my short and cheerless existence in this world. I am sincerely grateful for your kindness in connecting the interest you take in the sentiments of an old friend with the able part you take in the service of your country. It is an instance, among many, of that happy temper, which has always given a character of amenity to your virtues, and a good-natured direction to your talents. Your speech on the catholick question I read with much satisfaction. It is solid; it is convincing; it is eloquent; and it ought, on the spot, to have produced that effect, which its reason, and that contained in the other excellent speeches on the same side of the question, cannot possibly fail (though with less pleasant consequences) to produce hereafter. What a sad thing it is, that the grand instructor, Time, has not yet been able to teach the grand lesson of his own value; and that, in every question of moral and political prudence, it is the choice of the moment, which renders the measure serviceable or useless, noxious or salutary. | In the catholick question I considered only one point. Was it, at the time, and in the circumstances, a measure, which tended to promote the concord of the citizens? I have no difficulty in saying, it was; and as little in saying, that the present concord of the citizens was worth buying, at a critical season, by granting a few capacities, which probably no one man now living is likely to be served or hurt by. When any man tells you and me, that, if these places were left in the discretion of a protestant crown, and these memberships in the discretion of protestant electors, or patrons, we should have a popish official system, and a popish representation, capable of overturning the establishment, he only insults our understandings. When any man tells this to catholicks, he insults their understandings, and he galls their feelings. It is not the question of the places and seats; it is the real hostile disposition, and the pretended fears, that leave stings in the minds of the people. I really thought, that in the total of the late circumstances, with regard to persons, to things, to principles, and to measures, was to be found a conjuncture favourable to the introduc- do not go with the hands of the soldiery, you may call your constitution what you will, in effect it will consist of three parts, (orders, if you please,) cavalry, infantry, and artillery-and of nothing else or better. stimulate them to enquire (on the new principles) into the foundation of that property, and of all property. If you treat men as robbers, why robbers, sooner or later, they will become. I agree with you in your dislike of the dis-ditionary constitutions. You are apprehensive for courses in Francis-street; but I like as little some of those in College-green. I am even less pleased with the temper, that predominated in the latter, as better things might have been expected in the regular family mansion of publick discretion, than in a new and hasty assembly of unexperienced men, congregated under circumstances of no small irritation. After people have taken your tests, prescribed by yourselves as proofs of their allegiance, to be marked as enemies, traitors, or at best as suspected and dangerous persons, and that they are not to be believed on their oaths, we are not to be surprised if they fall into a passion, and talk, as men in a passion do, intemperately and idly. The worst of the matter is this: you are partly leading, partly driving, into Jacobinism that description of your people, whose religious principles, -church polity, and habitual discipline,-might make them an invincible dyke against that inundation. This you have a thousand mattocks and pick-axes lifted up to demolish. You make a sad story of the pope!-0 seri studiorum !—It will not be difficult to get many called catholicks to laugh at this fundamental part of their religion. Never doubt it. You have succeeded in part; and you may succeed completely. But in the present state of men's minds and affairs do not flatter yourselves, that they will piously look to the head of our church in the place of that pope, whom you make them forswear; and out of all reverence to whom you bully, and rail, and buffoon them. Perhaps you may succeed in the same manner with all the other tenets of doctrine, and usages of discipline, amongst the catholicks. But what security have you, that in the temper, and on the principles, on which they have made this change, they will stop at the exact sticking places you have marked in your articles? You have no security for any thing, but that they will become, what are called Franco-Jacobins, and reject the whole together. No converts now will be made in a considerable number from one of our sects to the other upon a really religious principle. Controversy moves in another direction. Next to religion, property is the great point of Jacobin attack. Here many of the debaters in your majority, and their writers, have given the Jacobins all the assistance their hearts can wish. When the catholicks desire places and seats, you tell them, that this is only a pretext (though protestants might suppose it just possible for men to like good places, and snug boroughs for their own merits); but that their real view is, to strip protestants of their property. To my certain knowledge, till those Jacobin lectures were opened in the house of commons, they never dreamt of any such thing; but now, the great professors may A third point of Jacobin attack is on old trayours, which leans from its perpendicular, and does not stand firm on its theory. I like parliamentary reforms as little as any man, who has boroughs to sell for money, or for peerages, in Ireland. But it passes my comprehension, in what manner it is, that men can be reconciled to the practical merits of a constitution, the theory of which is in litigation, by being practically excluded from any of its advantages. Let us put ourselves in the place of these people, and try an experiment of the effects of such a procedure on our own minds. Unquestionably we should be perfectly satisfied when we were told, that houses of parliament, instead of being places of refuge for popular liberty, were citadels for keeping us in order as a conquered people. These things play the Jacobin game to a nicety. Indeed, my dear Sir, there is not a single particular in the Francisstreet declamations, which has not, to your and to my certain knowledge, been taught by the jealous ascendants, sometimes by doctrine, sometimes by example, always by provocation. Remember the whole of 1781, and 1782-in parliament and out of parliament at this very day, and in the worst acts and designs, observe the tenour of the objections, with which the College-green orators of the ascendancy reproach the catholicks. You have observed, no doubt, how much they rely on the affair of Jackson. Is it not pleasant to hear catholicks reproached for a supposed connexion— with whom?-with protestant clergymen, with protestant gentlemen! with Mr. Jackson !—with Mr. Rowan, &c. &c.! But egomet mi ignosco. Conspiracies and treasons are privileged pleasures, not to be profaned by the impure and unhallowed touch of papists. Indeed all this will do, perhaps, well enough with detachments of dismounted cavalry and fencibles from England. But let us not say to catholicks, by way of argument, that they are to be kept in a degraded state, because some of them are no better than many of us protestants. The thing I most disliked in some of their speeches (those I mean of the catholicks) was what is called the spirit of liberality, so much and so diligently taught by the ascendants, by which they are made to abandon their own particular interests, and to merge them in the general discontents of the country. It gave me no pleasure to hear of the dissolution of the committee. There were in it a majority, to my knowledge, of very sober well-intentioned men; and there were none in it, but such, who, if not continually goaded and irritated, might be made useful to the tranquillity of the country. It is right always to have a few of every description, through whom you may quietly operate on the many, both for the interests of the description, and for the general interest. Excuse me, my dear friend, if I have a little tried your patience. You have brought this trouble on yourself, by your thinking of a man forgot, and who has no objection to be forgot, by the world. These things we discussed together four or five and thirty years ago. We were then, and at bottom ever since, of the same opinion on the justice and policy of the whole, and of every part, of the penal system. You and I, and every body, must now and then ply and bend to the occasion, and take what can be got. But very sure I am, that whilst there remains in the law any principle whatever, which can furnish to cer MY DEAR SON, same way. LETTER TO RICHARD BURKE, ESQ. about, or should trifle with it. In this house we submit, though with troubled minds, to that order, which has connected all great duties with toils and with perils, which has conducted the road to glory through the regions of obloquy and reproach, and which will never suffer the disparaging alliance of spurious, false, and fugitive praise with genuine and permanent reputation. We know, that the Power, which has settled that order, and subjected you to it by placing you in the situation you are in, is able to bring you out of it with credit and with safety. His will be done. All must come right. You may open the way with pain, and under reproach. Others will pursue it with ease and with applause. We are all again assembled in town, to finish | the last, but the most laborious, of the tasks which have been imposed upon me during my parliamentary service. We are as well as, at our time of life, we can expect to be. We have indeed some moments of anxiety about you. You are engaged in an undertaking similar in its principle to mine. You are engaged in the relief of an oppressed people. In that service you must necessarily excite the same sort of passions in those, who have exercised, and who wish to continue, that oppression, that I have had to struggle with in this long labour. As your father has done, you must make enemies of many of the rich, of the proud, and of the powerful. I and you began in the I am sorry to find, that pride and passion, and I must confess, that, if our place was that sort of zeal for religion, which never shews of our choice, I could wish it had been your lot any wonderful heat but when it afflicts and mortito begin the career of your life with an endeavour fies our neighbour, will not let the ruling description to render some more moderate, and less invidious, perceive, that the privilege, for which your clients service to the publick. But being engaged in a contend, is very nearly as much for the benefit of great and critical work, I have not the least hesi- those who refuse it, as those who ask it. I am tation about your having hitherto done your duty not to examine into the charges, that are daily as becomes you. If I had not an assurance not made on the administration of Ireland. I am not to be shaken from the character of your mind, I qualified to say how much in them is cold truth, should be satisfied on that point, by the cry that and how much rhetorical exaggeration. Allowing is raised against you. If you had behaved, as they some foundation to the complaint, it is to no purcall it, discreetly, that is, faintly and treacherously, pose, that these people allege, that their governin the execution of your trust, you would have had, ment is a job in its administration. I am sure it for a while, the good word of all sorts of men, is a job in its constitution; nor is it possible, even of many of those, whose cause you had be- a scheme of polity, which in total exclusion of the trayed; and whilst your favour lasted, you might body of the community confines (with little or no have coined that false reputation into a true and regard to their rank or condition in life) to a cersolid interest to yourself. This you are well ap-tain set of favoured citizens the rights, which forprized of; and you do not refuse to travel that beaten road from an ignorance, but from a contempt, of the objects it leads to. When you choose an arduous and slippery path, God forbid, that any weak feelings of my declining age, which calls for soothings and supports, and which can have none but from you, should make me wish, that you should abandon what you are merly belonged to the whole, should not, by the operation of the same selfish and narrow principles, teach the persons, who administer in that government, to prefer their own particular, but well understood, private interest to the false and ill calculated private interest of the monopolizing company they belong to. Eminent characters, to be sure, overrule places and circumstances. I As have nothing to say to that virtue, which shoots up in full force by the native vigour of the seminal principle, in spite of the adverse soil and climate that it grows in. But speaking of things in their ordinary course, in a country of monopoly there can be no patriotism. There may be a party spirit but publick spirit there can be none. to a spirit of liberty, still less can it exist, or any thing like it. A liberty made up of penalties! a liberty made up of incapacities! a liberty made up of exclusion and proscription, continued for ages, of four-fifths, perhaps, of the inhabitants of all ranks and fortunes! In what does such liberty differ from the description of the most shocking kind of servitude? But it will be said, in that country some people are free-why this is the very description of despotism. Partial freedom is privilege and prerogative, and not liberty. Liberty, such as deserves the name, is an honest, equitable, diffusive, and impartial principle. It is a great and enlarged virtue, and not a sordid, selfish, and illiberal vice. It is the portion of the mass of the citizens; and not the haughty license of some potent individual, or some predominant faction. If any thing ought to be despotick in a country, it is its government; because there is no cause of constant operation to make its yoke unequal. But the dominion of a party must continually, steadily, and by its very essence, lean upon the prostrate description. A constitution, formed so as to enable a party to overrule its very government, and to overpower the people too, answers the purposes neither of government nor of freedom. It compels that power, which ought, and often would be disposed, equally to protect the subjects, to fail in its trust, to counteract its purposes, and to become no better than the instrument of the wrongs of a faction. Some degree of influence must exist in all governments. But a government, which has no interest to please the body of the people, and can neither support them, nor with safety call for their support, nor is of power to sway the domineering faction, can only exist by corruption; and taught by that monopolizing party, which usurps the title and qualities of the publick, to consider the body of the people as out of the constitution, they will consider those, who are in it, in the light in which they choose to consider themselves. The whole relation of government and of freedom will be a battle, or a traffick. This system in its real nature, and under its proper appellations, is odious and unnatural, especially when a constitution is admitted, which not only, as all constitutions do profess, has a regard to the good of the multitude, but in its theory makes profession of their power also. But of late this scheme of theirs has been new christenedhonestum nomen imponitur vitio. A word has been lately struck in the mint of the castle of Dublin; thence it was conveyed to the Tholsel, or city-hall, where, having passed the touch of the corporation, so respectably stamped and vouched, it soon became current in parliament, and was carried back by the speaker of the house of commons in great pomp, as an offering of homage from whence it came. The word is Ascendency. It is not absolutely new. But the sense, in which I have hitherto seen it used, was to signify an influence obtained over the minds of some other person by love and reverence, or by superiour management and dexterity. It had, therefore, to this its promotion no more than a moral, not a civil or political, use. But I admit it is capable of being so applied; and if the lord mayor of Dublin, and the speaker of the Irish parliament, who recommend the preservation of the protestant ascendency, mean to employ the word in that sense, that is, if they understand by it the preservation of the influence of that description of gentlemen over the catholicks by means of an authority derived from their wisdom and virtue, and from an opinion they raise in that people of a pious regard and affection for their freedom and happiness, it is impossible not to commend their adoption of so apt a term into the family of politicks. It may be truly said to enrich the language. Even if the lord mayor and speaker mean to insinuate, that this influence is to be obtained and held by flattering their people, by managing them, by skilfully adapting themselves to the humours and passions of those whom they would govern, he must be a very untoward critick, who would cavil even at this use of the word, though such cajoleries would perhaps be more prudently practised than professed. These are all meanings laudable, or at least tolerable. But when we look a little more narrowly, and compare it with the plan, to which it owes its present technical application, I find it has strayed far from its original sense. It goes much further than the privilege allowed by Horace. It is more than parcè detortum. This protestant ascendency means nothing less than an influence obtained by virtue, by love, or even by artifice and seduction; full as little an influence derived from the means, by which ministers have obtained an influence, which might be called, without straining, an ascendency in publick assemblies in England, that is, by a liberal distribution of places and pensions, and other graces of government. This last is wide indeed of the signification of the word. New ascendency is the old mastership. It is neither more nor less than the resolution of one set of people in Ireland to consider themselves as the sole citizens in the commonwealth; and to keep a dominion over the rest by reducing them to absolute slavery under a military power; and thus fortified in their power, to divide the publick estate, which is the result of general contribution, as a military booty solely amongst themselves. The poor word ascendency, so soft and melodious in its sound, so lenitive and emollient in its first usage, is now employed to cover to the world the most rigid, and perhaps not the most wise, of all plans of policy. The word is large enough in its comprehension. I cannot conceive what mode of oppression in civil life, or what mode of religious persecution, may not come within the me |