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which have fatigued the understandings of profound reasoners in all times! Let us then consider, that all these were but so many preparatory steps to qualify a man, and such a man, tinctured with no national prejudice, with no domestic affection, to admire, and to hold out to the admiration of mankind the constitution of England! And shall we Englishmen revoke to such a suit? Shall we, when so much more than he has produced, remains still to be understood and admired, instead of keeping ourselves in the schools of real science, choose for our teachers men incapable of being taught, whose only claim to know is, that they have never doubted; from whom we can learn nothing but their own indocility; who would teach us to scorn what in the silence of our hearts we ought to adore?

Different from them all are the great critics. They have taught us one essential rule. I think the excellent and philosophic artist, a true judge, as well as a perfect follower of nature, Sir Joshua Reynolds, has somewhere applied it, or something like it, in his own profession. It is this, That if ever we should find ourselves disposed not to admire those writers or artists, Livy and Virgil for instance, Raphael or Michael Angelo, whom all the learned had admired, not to follow our own fancies, but to study them until we know how and what we ought to admire; and if we cannot arrive at this combination of admiration with knowledge, rather to believe that we are dull, than that the rest of the world has been imposed on. It is as good a rule, at least, with regard to this admired constitution. We ought to understand it according to our measure; and to venerate where we are not able presently to comprehend.

Such admirers were our fathers, to whom we owe this splendid inheritance. Let us improve it with zeal, but with fear. Let us follow our ancestors, men not without a rational, though without an exclusive confidence in themselves; who, by respecting the reason of others, who by looking backward as well as forward, by the modesty as well as by the energy of their minds, went on, insensibly drawing this constitution nearer and nearer to its perfection by never departing from its fundamental principles, nor introducing any amendment which had not a subsisting root in the laws, constitution, and usages

of the kingdom. Let those who have the trust of political or of natural authority ever keep watch against the desperate enterprises of innovation: let even their benevolence be fortified and armed. They have before their eyes the example of a monarch, insulted, degraded, confined, deposed; his family dispersed, scattered, imprisoned; his wife insulted to his face like the vilest of the sex, by the vilest of all populace; himself three times dragged by these wretches in an infamous triumph; his children torn from him, in violation of the first right of nature, and given into the tuition of the most desperate and impious of the leaders of desperate and impious clubs; his revenues dilapidated and plundered; his magistrates murdered; his clergy proscribed, persecuted, famished; his nobility degraded in their rank, undone in their fortunes, fugitives in their persons; his armies corrupted and ruined; his whole people impoverished, disunited, dissolved; whilst through the bars of his prison, and amidst the bayonets of his keepers, he hears the tumult of two conflicting factions, equally wicked and abandoned, who agree in principles, in dispositions, and in objects, but who tear each other to pieces about the most effectual means of obtaining their common end; the one contending to preserve for awhile his name, and his person, the more easily to destroy the royal authority-the other clamouring to cut off the name, the person, and the monarchy together, by one sacrilegious execution. All this accumulation of calamity, the greatest that ever fell upon one man, has fallen upon his head, because he had left his virtues unguarded by caution; because he was not taught that where power is concerned, he who will confer benefits must take security against ingratitude. -Burke.

ON JUSTICE.

BEFORE I come to the last magnificent paragraph, let me call the attention of those who, possibly, think themselves capable of judging of the dignity and character of justice in this country ;-let me call the attention of those who, arrogantly perhaps, presume that they understand what the features, what the duties of justice are here and in India;

-let them learn a lesson from this great statesman, this enlarged, this liberal philosopher:-" I hope I shall not depart from the simplicity of official language, in saying, that the Majesty of Justice ought to be approached with solicitation, not descend to provoke or invite it, much less to debase itself by the suggestion of wrongs, and the promise of redress, with the denunciation of punishment before trial, and even before accusation." This is the exhortation which Mr. Hastings makes to his counsel. This is the character which he gives of British justice.

these her features?

But I will ask your lordships, do you approve this representation? Do you feel, that this is the true image of justice? Is this the character of British justice? Are Is this her countenance? Is this her gait or her mien? No; I think even now I hear you calling upon me to turn from this vile libel, this base caricature, this Indian pagod, formed by the hand of guilty and knavish tyranny, to dupe the heart of ignorance,-to turn from this deformed idol, to the true majesty of justice here. Here, indeed, I see a different form, enthroned by the sovereign hand of freedom,-awful, without severity -commanding, without pride-vigilant and active, without restlessness or suspicion-searching and inquisitive, without meanness or debasement-not arrogantly scorning to stoop to the voice of afflicted innocence, and in its loveliest attitude when bending to uplift the suppliant at its feet.

It is by the majesty, by the form of that justice, that I do conjure and implore your lordships, to give your minds to this great business; that I exhort you to look, not so much to words which may be denied or quibbled away, but to the plain facts,-to weigh and consider the testimony in your own minds: we know the result must be inevitable. Let the truth appear, and our cause is gained. It is this-I conjure your lordships, for your own honour, for the honour of the nation, for the honour of human nature, now entrusted to your care,-it is this duty that the Commons of England, speaking through us, claim at your hands.

They exhort you to it by every thing that calls sublimely upon the heart of man-by the majesty of that justice which this bold man has libelled-by the wide fame of your own tribunal-by the sacred pledge by which you

swear in the solemn hour of decision; knowing that that decision will then bring you to the highest reward that ever blessed the heart of man—the consciousness of having done the greatest act of mercy for the world, that the earth has ever yet received from any hand but heaven. My Lords, I have done.

ROMULUS TO THE PEOPLE OF ROME.

If all the strength of cities lay in the height of their ramparts, or the depth of their ditches, we should have great reason to be in fear for that which we have now built. But are there in reality any walls too high to be scaled by a valiant enemy? And of what use are ramparts in intestine divisions? They may serve as a defence against sudden incursions from abroad; but it is by courage and prudence chiefly, that the invasions of foreign enemies are repelled; and by unanimity, sobriety, and justice, that domestic seditions are prevented. Cities fortified by the strongest bulwarks have been often seen to yield to force from without, or to tumults from within. An exact military discipline, and a steady observance of civil polity, are the surest barriers against these evils.

But there is still another point of great importance to be considered. The prosperity of some rising colonies, and the speedy ruin of others, have in a great measure been owing to their form of government. Were there but one manner of ruling states and cities that could make them happy, the choice would not be difficult; but I have learnt, that of the various forms of government among the Greeks and Barbarians, there are three which are highly extolled by those who have experienced them; and yet, that no one of these is in all respects perfect, but each of them has some innate and incurable defect. Choose you, then, in what manner this city shall be governed. Shall it be by one man? shall it be by a select number of the wisest among us? or shall the legislative power be in the people? As for me, I shall submit to whatever form of administration you shall please to establish. As I think myself not unworthy to command, so neither am I unwilling to obey. Your having chosen me to be the leader of this colony, and your calling the city

after my name, are honours sufficient to content me; honours of which, living or dead, I never can be deprived.-Hooke.

SEDITION SUPPRESSED WITHOUT ARMS.

WHEREFORE, Romans, since a thanksgiving has been decreed at all the shrines, celebrate these days with your wives and your children. Many ere this have been the just honours that have been given and paid to the immortal gods, but never were any more deservedly due than the present. For ye have been snatched from a most cruel and miserable death; and that without any slaughter, without blood-shedding, without an army, without a battle. In the dress of citizens, with me for your leader and conductor, in the robes of peace ye have conquered. For call to mind, Romans, all the civil dissensions, not only those of which you have heard, but those also, which you yourselves remember, and have witnessed. Lucius Sylla destroyed P. Sulpicius, drove Marius, the guardian of this city, from the city; partly banished, and partly slaughtered many brave citizens. Cn. Octavius, when consul, expelled his colleague by arms from the city. All the forum was filled with heaps of dead bodies, and flowed with the blood of citizens. Ĉinna afterwards, with Marius, prevailed; and then, after the most illustrious men had been put to death, the lights of the city were extinguished. Sylla afterwards avenged the cruelty of this victory. It is needless for me to state with how great a massacre of the citizens, and with what injury to the public, this was accomplished. M. Lepidus had a disagreement with that most illustrious and brave man, Q. Catulus; his ruin did not affect the republic with so much grief as did the death of the others. And these differences, Romans, were of such a character, as tended not to destroy, but to change the state. They wished not that there should be no state, but that they should be the chief men in that which existed; they intended not to burn the city, but themselves to rule in Rome. And yet all these dissensions, none of which aimed at the destruction of the republic, were so violent, that they were not settled by the reconciliation of agreement, but by the massacre of citizens. But in this war,

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