Edward Farr

“ I have no fear of slavery being introduced into this country by the power of the sword. It would demand a stronger man even than the Duke of Wellington to effect that object. The noble duke might take the army and the navy, the mitre and the great seal—I will make him a present of them all; let him come on with his whole force, sword in hand, against the constitution, the people will not only beat him by their energies, but laugh at his efforts. ”

“ Does the King of England want to build a palace equal to his rank and dignity? Does he want to encourage the polite and useful arts? Does he mean to reward the hardy veteran who has defended his quarrel in many a rough campaign, whose salary does not equal that of some of your servants? Or does he mean, by drawing the purse-strings of his subjects, to spread corruption through the people, to procure a parliament, like a packed jury, ready to acquit his ministers at all adventures? I do not say, my lords, that corruption lies here, or that corruption lies there ”

“ Every section of the community was held in terror by this miscalled “committee of public safety.” Even the representatives of the people, which thought itself called to liberate the world, and with them the whole people, trembled before these few tyrants, who, elevated from the dust by the power of accidents more than by that of genius, displayed a hideousness never yet beheld. “The whole people was in fearful excitement by anger, by fear, and love of liberty; and the terrorists, grasping at the terrible as the only means of salvation, manifested hereby the fever convulsions of the nation.” ”

“ Until that wound be healed, until the grievances be redressed, it is in vain to recommend union to parliament—in vain to promote concord among the people. If we mean seriously to unite the nation within itself, we must convince them that their complaints are regarded, that their injuries shall be redressed. On that foundation I would take the lead in recommending peace and harmony to the people. On any other I would never wish to see them united again. If the breach in the constitution be effectually repaired, the people will of themselves return to a state of tranquillity ”

“ They do not believe in protection; they have no fear of free-trade; and they are laughing to scorn all the arguments by which you are trying to frighten them. How can protection, think you, add to the wealth of a country? Can you by legislation add one farthing to the wealth of a country? You may by legislation, in one evening, destroy the fruits and accumulations of a century of labour: but I defy you to show me how, by the legislation of this house, you can add one farthing to the wealth of this country? ”

“ When men die, corruption commonly begins after death, but when nations die, it always begins before it. And as in that man’s gangrened extremities, and swollen feet, and slow circulation, I see the heralds of death approaching,—in these godless masses, sunk in ignorance, lost to the profession of religion, and even to the decent habits of civilised society, I see the most alarming signs of a nation’s danger, unless remedies are promptly applied, the unmistakeable forerunners of a nation’s death. ”

“ The Whig party were rendered still more uneasy by the conduct of Pitt, who declared that Burke had that day conferred a great obligation upon the country, and warmly applauded the zealous and seasonable attachment which he had displayed to the principles of the British constitution. No man, in truth, rendered more service to the cause of constitutional liberty than did Burke at this period. This was but the first of a series of splendid harangues which he uttered upon the subject of the French revolution, and which were as the sound of a trumpet to the hearts of the English people. ”

“ There are no sacrifices which they are not ready to make for the triumph of liberty, and for the independence of Germany. In their eyes to be a priest is to teach morality and charity; is to make common cause with all the oppressed; to preach justice and toleration; to predict the reign of equality; and to teach men that political redemption must follow religious liberty. Let the education of the clergy be the same in France as it is in Germany, and it will produce the same results. By the union of priests and laymen there will be a double action which will be favourable to society ”

“ That great orator, indeed, at all times, whether in office or out of office, whether in favour of the measures of government or banding against them, invariably held that the dependence of the colonies was absolutely and vitally essential, not merely to the honour and greatness and wealth of the mother country, but also to her safety and existence. He had, in truth, asserted that the moment America should be free, wholly independent of, and separated from Great Britain, the sun of England would set for ever. ”

“ Seas roll, and months pass, between the order and the execution; and the want of a speedy explanation of a single point is enough to defeat a whole system. You have, indeed, winged ministers of vengeance, who carry your bolts to the remotest verges of the sea. But there a power stops, that limits the arrogance of raging passions, and says, ‘Hitherto shalt thou go, and no further.’ Who are you, that should fret, and rage, and bite the chains of nature? Nothing worse happens to you than to all nations possessing extensive empire; and it happens in all the forms into which empire can be thrown. ”

“ Every arm of the British force behaved with admirable gallantry and skill; the infantry carried every point under the most galling fire, preserving their formation in a manner beyond all praise; the cavalry swept the horsemen of the enemy from the field, as the tide rolls the wreck upon the shore; the artillery could not be surpassed by that of any army in Europe: towards the close of the action, the manner in which two 8-inch howitzers, ordered up by Sir Harry Smith himself, were worked, excited the admiration of the troops. ”

“ We, your majesty’s commons of Great Britain, give and grant to your majesty—what? our own property?—No; we give and grant the property of your majesty’s commons of America! It is an absurdity in terms. The distinction between legislation and taxation is essentially necessary to liberty. The crown, the peers, are equally legislative powers with the commons. If taxation be a part of simple legislation, the crown and the peers have rights to taxation as well as yourselves—rights which they will claim, which they will exercise, whenever the principle can be supported by power. ”

“ How could the state of society be worse! and how could the people of Ireland be better off by persevering in maintaining the existing law! One hundred and ninety-six murders! Why, great battles had been fought, and great victories achieved by this country at a less expense of human blood. The battle of St. Vincent had been gained at less cost of life; the sanguinary bombardment of Algiers had caused less loss of life; and we had rolled back the impetuous tide of French exultation at the battle of Busaco with less loss of life. ”

“ Let the army be in every way worthy of the empire that it won and holds—holds by discipline! Let not the word become an empty boast. Let it not lose its reality. Let not victory lull our soldiers to sleep. Let every British officer recollect that powerful nations surround our Indian empire; that they are rapidly acquiring our military system, our tactics, our arms. Let him compare our earlier battles with our last—Plassey with Ferozashooshah and Sobraon—setting our losses in killed and wounded at each battle in juxta-position. ”

“ Extinguish the mean prejudices of nations, and let your numbers be collected and sent as a free-will offering to the national assembly! But is it possible to forget that your own parliament is venal? Your ministers hypocritical? Your clergy legal oppressors? The reigning family extravagant? The crown of a certain great personage becoming every day too weighty for the head that wears it? Too weighty for the people who gave it? Your taxes partial and excessive? Your representation a cruel insult upon the sacred rights of property, religion, and freedom? ”

“ It is a shameful truth, that not only the power and strength of this country are wasting away and expiring, but her well-earned glories, her true honour and substantial dignity, are sacrificed. France, my lords, has insulted you; she has encouraged and sustained America; and whether America be wrong or right, the dignity of this country ought to spurn at the officious insult of French interference. The ministers and ambassadors of those who are called rebels and enemies are in Paris—in Paris they transact the reciprocal interests of America and France. ”

“ The eldest born of the European family was the first to perish, because she had thwarted all the ends of social union; because she had united the turbulence of democratic to the exclusiveness of aristocratical societies; because she had the vacillation of a republic without its energy, and the oppression of a monarchy without its stability. Such a system neither could nor ought to be maintained; the internal feuds of Poland were more fatal to human happiness than the despotism of Russia; and the growth of improvement among its people was as slow as among the ryots of Hindostan. ”

“ Are not all the relations of society which exist elsewhere gone? Has not property lost its influence? Has not rank been stripped of the respect which should belong to it? And has not an internal government grown up, which, gradually superseding the legitimate authorities, has armed itself with a complete domination? Is it nothing that the whole body of the clergy are alienated from the state, and that the Catholic gentry, and peasantry, and priesthood are all combined in one vast confederacy? So much for Catholic indignation while we are at peace. ”

“ Their objects were to push on changes to any extent possible; to insist on whatever they chose to demand, as a right which could not justly be refused; to repress opposing opinions in their neighbourhood; and to make even the government feel that they existed in order to dictate, not to obey. The whole kingdom was indeed in a ferment; and not only the correction of abuses, but immediate relief from national calamities, was confidently expected by the multitude in a reform of parliament. It was to prove a balm for all their sufferings—the commencement of a golden era of prosperity. ”

“ Erskine Mather is now a scientific British officer, and bears amidst the ranks of England’s defenders the visible scar of the wound so treacherously and wantonly inflicted upon him because he was an Englishman: a remembrance to every Englishman of how little he may rely upon the defence of his own honour, or the honour of his country in his person, while the diplomacy of England is in the hands of men who sympathise with foreign despotism, or find luxurious and lucrative appointments at foreign courts under the ostensible duty of watching over the interests of their country. ”

“ I place my firm reliance on the wisdom of parliament, and upon the loyalty and affection of my people. I esteem it also a peculiar advantage, that I succeed to a sovereign whose constant regards for the rights and liberties of his subjects, and whose desire to promote the amelioration of the laws and institutions of the country, have rendered his name the object of general attachment and veneration. Educated in England, under the tender and enlightened care of a most affectionate mother, I have learned from my infancy to respect and love the constitution of my native country. ”

“ Why deny a community of privileges to those who confer equal services, and encounter equal danger? On what occasion had the people of Scotland not contributed their full share in support of Great Britain? Were they no longer wanted? Hid the church of England desire to be left to defend the empire exclusively? If so, let the dissenters be told to withdraw, and quit a defence which they could only remain to make under exposure to ignominy. Take the battle of Waterloo, he continued, which had crowned the renown of the most illustrious leader of their times. ”

“ My relations with foreign powers continue to inspire me with confidence in the maintenance of peace. It has afforded me great satisfaction to find that the measures which, in concert with the King of the French, the Queen of Spain, and the Queen of Portugal, I have taken for the pacification of Portugal, have been attended with success; and that the civil war which for many months had afflicted that country has, at last, been brought to a bloodless termination. I indulge the hope that future differences between political parties in that country may be settled without an appeal to arms. ”

“ Deep as is the baseness of those who build their party hopes upon a nation’s misery, deeper still would be our baseness if ever, even amid all the heart-crushing calamities of the time, we shrunk in aught from our high purposes, and from our vows for Ireland’s regeneration.
“Nay, if but the hope of relief from our present distress were to animate us, even so should we cry out for that home parliament which alone can bring back wealth and abundance to the land—alone can guard her from recurring season after season of want, of pestilence, of death! ”

“ Yet, when I consider the whole case as it lies before me, I am not much astonished, I am not much surprised, that men who hate liberty should detest those who prize it, or that those who want virtue themselves should endeavour to persecute those who possess it. Were I disposed to pursue this theme to the extent that truth would fully bear me out in, I could demonstrate that the whole of your political conduct has been one continued series of weakness, temerity, despotism, ignorance, futility, negligence, and the most notorious servility, incapacity, and corruption. ”

“ Towards the end of the year the troops of the Bengal army were sullen and almost mutinous. Intelligent, officers noticed the dark scowl which the soldiery in vain endeavoured to conceal. In the public bazaars of the great cities a sort of secret intelligence between the sepoys and the people was observed, and all men, except the high officials, seemed to hear the murmuring of the distant thunder, and the first struggles of the storm, so soon to burst in blood and destruction over so large a portion of India. ”

“ Let no man tell me it is useless to look for a repeal of the odious union, that blot upon our national character. I revere the union between England and Scotland; but the union which converted Ireland into a province, which deprived Ireland of her parliament, it is for the repeal of that measure we must now use all the constitutional means in our power: that union which engenders absenteeism, and the thousand other evils which naturally flow in its train. ”

“ I will trust no sovereign in the world with the means of purchasing the liberties of the people. When I had the honour of being the confidential keeper of the king’s intention, he assured me that he never intended to exceed the allowance which was made by parliament, and therefore, my lords, at a time when there are no marks of personal dissipation in the king—at a time when there are no marks of any considerable sums having been expended to procure the secrets of our enemies—that a request of an inquiry into the expenditure of the civil list should be refused, is to me most extraordinary. ”