THOUGHTS ON THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS AND SPEECHES(对当下不满的思考)

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THOUGHTS ON THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS AND SPEECHES

THOUGHTS ON THE

PRESENT

DISCONTENTS AND

SPEECHES

by Edmund Burke

THOUGHTS ON THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS AND SPEECHES

INTRODUCTION

Edmund Burke was born at Dublin on the first of January, 1730. His

father was an attorney, who had fifteen children, of whom all but four died

in their youth. Edmund, the second son, being of delicate health in his

childhood, was taught at home and at his grandfather's house in the

country before he was sent with his two brothers Garrett and Richard to a

school at Ballitore, under Abraham Shackleton, a member of the Society

of Friends. For nearly forty years afterwards Burke paid an annual visit

to Ballitore.

In 1744, after leaving school, Burke entered Trinity College, Dublin.

He graduated B.A. in 1748; M.A., 1751. In 1750 he came to London, to

the Middle Temple. In 1756 Burke became known as a writer, by two

pieces. One was a pamphlet called "A Vindication of Natural Society."

This was an ironical piece, reducing to absurdity those theories of the

excellence of uncivilised humanity which were gathering strength in

France, and had been favoured in the philosophical works of Bolingbroke,

then lately published. Burke's other work published in 1756, was his

"Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful."

At this time Burke's health broke down. He was cared for in the

house of a kindly physician, Dr. Nugent, and the result was that in the

spring of 1757 he married Dr. Nugent's daughter. In the following year

Burke made Samuel Johnson's acquaintance, and acquaintance ripened

fast into close friendship. In 1758, also, a son was born; and, as a way of

adding to his income, Burke suggested the plan of "The Annual Register."

In 1761 Burke became private secretary to William Gerard Hamilton,

who was then appointed Chief Secretary to Ireland. In April, 1763,

Burke's services were recognised by a pension of 300 pounds a year; but

he threw this up in April, 1765, when he found that his services were

considered to have been not only recognised, but also bought. On the 10th

of July in that year (1765) Lord Rockingham became Premier, and a week

later Burke, through the good offices of an admiring friend who had come

to know him in the newly-founded Turk's Head Club, became

THOUGHTS ON THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS AND SPEECHES

Rockingham's private secretary. He was now the mainstay, if not the

inspirer, of Rockingham's policy of pacific compromise in the vexed

questions between England and the American colonies. Burke's elder

brother, who had lately succeeded to his father's property, died also in

1765, and Burke sold the estate in Cork for 4,000 pounds.

Having become private secretary to Lord Rockingham, Burke entered

Parliament as member for Wendover, and promptly took his place among

the leading speakers in the House.

On the 30th of July, 1766, the Rockingham Ministry went out, and

Burke wrote a defence of its policy in "A Short Account of a late Short

Administration." In 1768 Burke bought for 23,000 pounds an estate

called Gregories or Butler's Court, about a mile from Beaconsfield. He

called it by the more territorial name of Beaconsfield, and made it his

home. Burke's endeavours to stay the policy that was driving the

American colonies to revolution, caused the State of New York, in 1771,

to nominate him as its agent. About May, 1769, Edmund Burke began

the pamphlet here given, Thoughts on the Present Discontents. It was

published in 1770, and four editions of it were issued before the end of the

year. It was directed chiefly against Court influence, that had first been

used successfully against the Rockingham Ministry. Allegiance to

Rockingham caused Burke to write the pamphlet, but he based his

argument upon essentials of his own faith as a statesman. It was the

beginning of the larger utterance of his political mind.

Court influence was strengthened in those days by the large number of

newly-rich men, who bought their way into the House of Commons for

personal reasons and could easily be attached to the King's party. In a

population of 8,000,000 there were then but 160,000 electors, mostly

nominal. The great land-owners generally held the counties. When two

great houses disputed the county of York, the election lasted fourteen days,

and the costs, chiefly in bribery, were said to have reached three hundred

thousand pounds. Many seats in Parliament were regarded as hereditary

possessions, which could be let at rental, or to which the nominations

could be sold. Town corporations often let, to the highest bidders, seats

in Parliament, for the benefit of the town funds. The election of John

THOUGHTS ON THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS AND SPEECHES

Wilkes for Middlesex, in 1768, was taken as a triumph of the people.

The King and his ministers then brought the House of Commons into

conflict with the freeholders of Westminster. Discontent became active

and general. "Junius" began, in his letters, to attack boldly the King's

friends, and into the midst of the discontent was thrown a message from

the Crown asking for half a million, to make good a shortcoming in the

Civil List. Men asked in vain what had been done with the lost money.

Confusion at home was increased by the great conflict with the American

colonies; discontents, ever present, were colonial as well as home. In

such a time Burke endeavoured to show by what pilotage he would have

men weather the storm.

H. M.

THOUGHTS ON THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS AND SPEECHES

THOUGHTS ON THE PRESENT

DISCONTENTS

It is an undertaking of some degree of delicacy to examine into the

cause of public disorders. If a man happens not to succeed in such an

inquiry, he will be thought weak and visionary; if he touches the true

grievance, there is a danger that he may come near to persons of weight

and consequence, who will rather be exasperated at the discovery of their

errors than thankful for the occasion of correcting them. If he should be

obliged to blame the favourites of the people, he will be considered as the

tool of power; if he censures those in power, he will be looked on as an

instrument of faction. But in all exertions of duty something is to be

hazarded. In cases of tumult and disorder, our law has invested every man,

in some sort, with the authority of a magistrate. When the affairs of the

nation are distracted, private people are, by the spirit of that law, justified

in stepping a little out of their ordinary sphere. They enjoy a privilege of

somewhat more dignity and effect than that of idle lamentation over the

calamities of their country. They may look into them narrowly; they may

reason upon them liberally; and if they should be so fortunate as to

discover the true source of the mischief, and to suggest any probable

method of removing it, though they may displease the rulers for the day,

they are certainly of service to the cause of Government. Government is

deeply interested in everything which, even through the medium of some

temporary uneasiness, may tend finally to compose the minds of the

subjects, and to conciliate their affections. I have nothing to do here with

the abstract value of the voice of the people. But as long as reputation,

the most precious possession of every individual, and as long as opinion,

the great support of the State, depend entirely upon that voice, it can never

be considered as a thing of little consequence either to individuals or to

Government. Nations are not primarily ruled by laws; less by violence.

Whatever original energy may be supposed either in force or regulation,

the operation of both is, in truth, merely instrumental. Nations are

THOUGHTS ON THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS AND SPEECHES

governed by the same methods, and on the same principles, by which an

individual without authority is often able to govern those who are his

equals or his superiors, by a knowledge of their temper, and by a judicious

management of it; I mean, when public affairs are steadily and quietly

conducted: not when Government is nothing but a continued scuffle

between the magistrate and the multitude, in which sometimes the one and

sometimes the other is uppermost--in which they alternately yield and

prevail, in a series of contemptible victories and scandalous submissions.

The temper of the people amongst whom he presides ought therefore to be

the first study of a statesman. And the knowledge of this temper it is by no

means impossible for him to attain, if he has not an interest in being

ignorant of what it is his duty to learn.

To complain of the age we live in, to murmur at the present possessors

of power, to lament the past, to conceive extravagant hopes of the future,

are the common dispositions of the greater part of mankind--indeed, the

necessary effects of the ignorance and levity of the vulgar. Such

complaints and humours have existed in all times; yet as all times have

NOT been alike, true political sagacity manifests itself, in distinguishing

that complaint which only characterises the general infirmity of human

nature from those which are symptoms of the particular distemperature of

our own air and season.

Nobody, I believe, will consider it merely as the language of spleen

or disappointment, if I say that there is something particularly alarming in

the present conjuncture. There is hardly a man, in or out of power, who

holds any other language. That Government is at once dreaded and

contemned; that the laws are despoiled of all their respected and salutary

terrors; that their inaction is a subject of ridicule, and their exertion of

abhorrence; that rank, and office, and title, and all the solemn plausibilities

of the world, have lost their reverence and effect; that our foreign politics

are as much deranged as our domestic economy; that our dependencies are

slackened in their affection, and loosened from their obedience; that we

know neither how to yield nor how to enforce; that hardly anything above

or below, abroad or at home, is sound and entire; but that disconnection

and confusion, in offices, in parties, in families, in Parliament, in the

THOUGHTS ON THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS AND SPEECHES

nation, prevail beyond the disorders of any former time: these are facts

universally admitted and lamented.

This state of things is the more extraordinary, because the great parties

which formerly divided and agitated the kingdom are known to be in a

manner entirely dissolved. No great external calamity has visited the

nation; no pestilence or famine. We do not labour at present under any

scheme of taxation new or oppressive in the quantity or in the mode. Nor

are we engaged in unsuccessful war, in which our misfortunes might

easily pervert our judgment, and our minds, sore from the loss of national

glory, might feel every blow of fortune as a crime in Government.

It is impossible that the cause of this strange distemper should not

sometimes become a subject of discourse. It is a compliment due, and

which I willingly pay, to those who administer our affairs, to take notice in

the first place of their speculation. Our Ministers are of opinion that the

increase of our trade and manufactures, that our growth by colonisation

and by conquest, have concurred to accumulate immense wealth in the

hands of some individuals; and this again being dispersed amongst the

people, has rendered them universally proud, ferocious, and ungovernable;

that the insolence of some from their enormous wealth, and the boldness

of others from a guilty poverty, have rendered them capable of the most

atrocious attempts; so that they have trampled upon all subordination, and

violently borne down the unarmed laws of a free Government--barriers too

feeble against the fury of a populace so fierce and licentious as ours.

They contend that no adequate provocation has been given for so

spreading a discontent, our affairs having been conducted throughout with

remarkable temper and consummate wisdom. The wicked industry of

some libellers, joined to the intrigues of a few disappointed politicians,

have, in their opinion, been able to produce this unnatural ferment in the

nation.

Nothing indeed can be more unnatural than the present convulsions of

this country, if the above account be a true one. I confess I shall assent to

it with great reluctance, and only on the compulsion of the clearest and

firmest proofs; because their account resolves itself into this short but

discouraging proposition, "That we have a very good Ministry, but that we

THOUGHTS ON THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS AND SPEECHES

are a very bad people;" that we set ourselves to bite the hand that feeds us;

that with a malignant insanity we oppose the measures, and ungratefully

vilify the persons, of those whose sole object is our own peace and

prosperity. If a few puny libellers, acting under a knot of factious

politicians, without virtue, parts, or character (such they are constantly

represented by these gentlemen), are sufficient to excite this disturbance,

very perverse must be the disposition of that people amongst whom such a

disturbance can be excited by such means. It is besides no small

aggravation of the public misfortune that the disease, on this hypothesis,

appears to be without remedy. If the wealth of the nation be the cause of

its turbulence, I imagine it is not proposed to introduce poverty as a

constable to keep the peace. If our dominions abroad are the roots which

feed all this rank luxuriance of sedition, it is not intended to cut them off

in order to famish the fruit. If our liberty has enfeebled the executive

power, there is no design, I hope, to call in the aid of despotism to fill up

the deficiencies of law. Whatever may be intended, these things are not

yet professed. We seem therefore to be driven to absolute despair, for we

have no other materials to work upon but those out of which God has been

pleased to form the inhabitants of this island. If these be radically and

essentially vicious, all that can be said is that those men are very unhappy

to whose fortune or duty it falls to administer the affairs of this untoward

people. I hear it indeed sometimes asserted that a steady perseverance in

the present measures, and a rigorous punishment of those who oppose

them, will in course of time infallibly put an end to these disorders. But

this, in my opinion, is said without much observation of our present

disposition, and without any knowledge at all of the general nature of

mankind. If the matter of which this nation is composed be so very

fermentable as these gentlemen describe it, leaven never will be wanting

to work it up, as long as discontent, revenge, and ambition have existence

in the world. Particular punishments are the cure for accidental distempers

in the State; they inflame rather than allay those heats which arise from the

settled mismanagement of the Government, or from a natural ill

disposition in the people. It is of the utmost moment not to make

mistakes in the use of strong measures, and firmness is then only a virtue

THOUGHTS ON THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS AND SPEECHES

when it accompanies the most perfect wisdom. In truth, inconstancy is a

sort of natural corrective of folly and ignorance.

I am not one of those who think that the people are never in the wrong.

They have been so, frequently and outrageously, both in other countries

and in this. But I do say that in all disputes between them and their rulers

the presumption is at least upon a par in favour of the people.

Experience may perhaps justify me in going further. When popular

discontents have been very prevalent, it may well be affirmed and

supported that there has been generally something found amiss in the

constitution or in the conduct of Government. The people have no

interest in disorder. When they do wrong, it is their error, and not their

crime. But with the governing part of the State it is far otherwise. They

certainly may act ill by design, as well as by mistake. "Les revolutions

qui arrivent dans les grands etats ne sont point un effect du hasard, ni du

caprice des peuples. Rien ne revolte les grands d'un royaume comme un

Gouvernoment foible et derange. Pour la populace, ce n'est jamais par

envie d'attaquer qu'elle se souleve, mais par impatience de souffrir."

These are the words of a great man, of a Minister of State, and a zealous

assertor of Monarchy. They are applied to the system of favouritism

which was adopted by Henry the Third of France, and to the dreadful

consequences it produced. What he says of revolutions is equally true of

all great disturbances. If this presumption in favour of the subjects

against the trustees of power be not the more probable, I am sure it is the

more comfortable speculation, because it is more easy to change an

Administration than to reform a people.

Upon a supposition, therefore, that, in the opening of the cause, the

presumptions stand equally balanced between the parties, there seems

sufficient ground to entitle any person to a fair hearing who attempts some

other scheme besides that easy one which is fashionable in some

fashionable companies, to account for the present discontents. It is not to

be argued that we endure no grievance, because our grievances are not of

the same sort with those under which we laboured formerly--not precisely

those which we bore from the Tudors, or vindicated on the Stuarts. A

great change has taken place in the affairs of this country. For in the

THOUGHTS ON THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS AND SPEECHES

silent lapse of events as material alterations have been insensibly brought

about in the policy and character of governments and nations as those

which have been marked by the tumult of public revolutions.

It is very rare indeed for men to be wrong in their feelings concerning

public misconduct; as rare to be right in their speculation upon the cause

of it. I have constantly observed that the generality of people are fifty

years, at least, behindhand in their politics. There are but very few who

are capable of comparing and digesting what passes before their eyes at

different times and occasions, so as to form the whole into a distinct

system. But in books everything is settled for them, without the exertion

of any considerable diligence or sagacity. For which reason men are

wise with but little reflection, and good with little self-denial, in the

business of all times except their own. We are very uncorrupt and

tolerably enlightened judges of the transactions of past ages; where no

passions deceive, and where the whole train of circumstances, from the

trifling cause to the tragical event, is set in an orderly series before us.

Few are the partisans of departed tyranny; and to be a Whig on the

business of a hundred years ago is very consistent with every advantage of

present servility. This retrospective wisdom and historical patriotism are

things of wonderful convenience, and serve admirably to reconcile the old

quarrel between speculation and practice. Many a stern republican, after

gorging himself with a full feast of admiration of the Grecian

commonwealths and of our true Saxon constitution, and discharging all

the splendid bile of his virtuous indignation on King John and King James,

sits down perfectly satisfied to the coarsest work and homeliest job of the

day he lives in. I believe there was no professed admirer of Henry the

Eighth among the instruments of the last King James; nor in the court of

Henry the Eighth was there, I dare say, to be found a single advocate for

the favourites of Richard the Second.

No complaisance to our Court, or to our age, can make me believe

nature to be so changed but that public liberty will be among us, as among

our ancestors, obnoxious to some person or other, and that opportunities

will be furnished for attempting, at least, some alteration to the prejudice

of our constitution. These attempts will naturally vary in their mode,

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THOUGHTSONTHEPRESENTDISCONTENTSANDSPEECHES1THOUGHTSONTHEPRESENTDISCONTENTSANDSPEECHESbyEdmundBurkeTHOUGHTSONTHEPRESENTDISCONTENTSANDSPEECHES2INTRODUCTIONEdmundBurkewasbornatDublinonthefirstofJanuary,1730.Hisfatherwasanattorney,whohadfifteenchildren,ofwhomallbutfourdiedintheiryouth.Edmund,thesecondso...

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