Tyrant supreme! shall three Estates command, And make one mighty Dunciad of the land!' Dunciad, iv. 599. Nor titled upstarts league to rob the realm, A damned ARISTOCRACY prevail. If, all too short, our course of Freedom run, Cp. also Goldsmith, Traveller (1764); 'But when contending chiefs blockade the throne To call it freedom when themselves are free- half a patriot, half a coward grown, fly from petty tyrants to the throne.' Dr. Primrose, in the Vicar of Wakefield (ch. xix), expresses a similar feeling. P. 14, l. 6. P. 24, l. 18. established a sort of Rota in the Court. Harrington's club, ... as full of tricks As Rota-men of politics.' Part II. Canto iii. 1107. ditions. Upon my word,' writes Sir George Savile to Lord Rockingham, 'I can see nothing before you, but cutting in again the other rubber with the trumps and strong suits still in one hand; who positively will let no one player so much as get through a game, much less have good cards or win. I am far from being politician enough to analyse or prove all I say, but I do say that it all goes exceedingly well to that tune. You know I always said, with many more, that you—the last set-were humbugged. Granting this, we have now three things which seem all to point one way. G. G. first, your set second, and Lord C- last (which is precedence in matter of duping); all in turn made to believe that they should be supported; nay, in the last instance actually ostensibly supported, yet all by hook or by crook let down either by ineffectual support, or, as the case seems now, by admitting to a show of power on such previous conditions as shall sow the seeds of dissolution in the very establishment of a Ministry.' Rockingham Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 41. Savile, a shrewd observer and clear speaker, was the first to predict the future greatness of Charles Fox. P. 25, 1. 7. many rotten members belonging to the best connexions. That tail which draggles in the dirt, and which every party in every state must carry about it.' Burke, Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 385. 'Parties are like coin which would never be fit for common use without some considerable alloy of the baser metals.' Lord Stanhope, History of England, vol. v. P. 179. The image is borrowed from Bacon, Essay I. 13. the Junto cabal or faction. to the Whigs; cp. Seasonable Hints.' Retrenchment, Fr. 'retranchement' 1. 24. A minister of state. The opposite party applied the term intrenchment. The allusion is not to a Premier. 1. 25. collegues, Fr. 'collégues,' classical, and always used by Burke. P. 26, 1. 12. some person of whom the party entertains an high opinion. The allusion is to the young Duke of Grafton, who was one of the Secretaries in Lord Rockingham's ministry. 1. 19. Afterwards they are sure to destroy him in his turn; by setting up in his place, &c. The Duke of Grafton was displaced in January 1770, when Lord North became First Lord of the Treasury. 1. 27. an attempt to strip a particular friend of his family estate. Alluding to the scandalous attempt to deprive the Duke of Portland of Inglewood forest with the Manor and Castle of Carlisle, and extensive appurtenant election influence, by a grant to Sir James Lowther, the son-in-law of Lord Bute. These premises, though not specified in the grant from William III of the honour of Penrith to the Portland family, had been enjoyed by the family for several descents under that tenure. The grant was completed and sealed before the Duke had the opportunity of establishing his title, notwithstanding a caveat entered in the Exchequer, the Treasury relying on the antiquated prerogative maxim nullum tempus occurrit regi. Sir G. Savile's bill abolishing this maxim, though at first rejected, subsequently became law: and sixty years adverse possession now defeats the title of the Crown to lands. In this way an attempted wrong on an individual, agreeably to the genius of English legislation, became the means of establishing the iiberties of the community at large. On the share of the Duke of Grafton in the transaction alluded to by Burke, see Junius, Letter lxvii: 'You hastened the grant, with an expedition unknown to the Treasury, that he might have it time enough to give a decisive turn to the election for the county. On this election the Duke and Sir James are supposed to have spent about 40,000l. apiece. May's Const. History, i. 354. Sir James Lowther, in one day, served four hundred ejectments on the tenants of three extensive domains: but was nonsuited in the Court of Exchequer. P. 29, 1. 9. Like Janissaries, they derive a kind of freedom, &c. Cp. 'the ancient household troops of that side of the house.' Infra, p. 100, &c. In the teeth of all the old mercenary Swiss of state,' p. 133, and p. 135. G. Grenville first applied the term to the King's men: a set of Janissaries, who might at any time be ordered to put the bowstring around his neck.' Bedford Correspondence, vol. iii. 1. 10. the very condition of their servitude... people should be so desirous of adding themselves to that body. Burke, in speaking of the Janissaries, perhaps has in mind the description in the letter of Lady M. W. Montagu to the Countess of Bristol, April 1, 1717. This (offering to bring the head of the cadi who had neglected her orders) may give you some idea of the unlimited power of these fellows, who are all sworn brothers, and bound to revenge the injuries done to one another, whether at Cairo, Aleppo, or any part of the world. This inviolable league makes them so powerful, that the greatest man at Court never speaks to them but in a flattering tone; and in Asia, any man that is rich is forced to enrol himself a Janizary, to secure his estate.' 1. 22. invidious exclusion. The King of France,' says Machiavelli, 'suffers nobody to call himself of the King's party, because that would imply a party against him.' 'The King of England,' pertinently remarks a critic of the day, has no enemies.' 1. 31. for eight years past. The institution was supposed to have been set up after Lord Bute had been forced to resign, as a defence to the Crown against the Whig Ministries. See Butler's Reminiscences, vol. ii. p. 114. P. 30, 1. 10. hid but for a moment. Cp. infra, p. 145. 1. 14. without any idea of proscription. scription. See note to p. 17, l. 15. Referring to Lord Holland's pro 1. 20. abhorred and violently opposed by the Court Faction, &c. But it was the inherent weakness of the Rockingham administration, and the unhappy schisms among the Whigs, rather than the opposition of the King's friends, which brought about its fall. This was notorious at the time. Cp. note to p. 134, l. 8. 1. 24. I should say so little of the Earl of Bute, &c. Burke wished rather to conciliate than to offend this nobleman. The democratic party were exceedingly enraged at his being treated so leniently. 1. 29. to blacken this nobleman. This absolute use of the word is much better than the modern phrase, ' to blacken his character.' Cp. South, Serm. xxi.: 'Do but paint an angel black, and that is enough to make him pass for a devil. "Let us blacken him, let us blacken him what we can," said that miscreant Harrison of the blessed King,' &c. Cp. vol. ii. p. 131, 1. 33. 1. 32. a dangerous national quarrel—alluding to the indecent attacks on the Scotch nation in the North Briton and other publications of that day. P. 31, 1. 4. indifference to the constitution. By a natural reaction from the violent Whiggism of the early part of the century. 1. 6. We should have been tried with it, if the Earl of Bute had never existed. Burke here corrects the views of the author of the History of the Minority, p. 10. 1. 9. firmly to embody-now seldom used intransitively. 1. 33. Ib. to rail-to embody. The idiom is French. Cp. infra, p. 90, 1. 13. He communicates very little in a direct manner, &c. After 1764 Bute never seems to have directly communicated with the King, much less with Ministers. His visits, however, to Carlton House, on his return from abroad, were as frequent as ever, and were especially remarked during the month preceding the establishment of the Chatham Ministry in 1766. 1. 20. whoever becomes a party to an Administration, &c. The attack on Lord Chatham which the pamphlet in an earlier shape contained, and which was afterwards expunged, perhaps followed this paragraph. Ib. But whoever, &c. The sentence is negligently constructed. P. 32, 1. 1. System of Favouritism. Unnatural perhaps, but not uncommon in similar circumstances. Bacon extols a system of Favouritism as the best remedy against the ambitious great. Essay of Ambition. 1. 10. bitter waters, Numbers v. 14. The rhetorical phrases and images borrowed from the Holy Scriptures, which always suggested themselves to Burke when rising above the common level of his argument, are naturally less thickly sown in this pamphlet than in his speeches. See pp. 39, 53, 56, 80. 1. II. drunk until we are ready to burst. Pope, Moral Essays, Epistle iii. Men and dogs shall drink him till they burst.' Largely drink, e'en till their bowels burst.' Churchill, Gotham, Book ii. 3. 1. 13. abused by bad or weak men—and by the King himself, though Burke could only hint this. Yet without an unusually low standard of morality among public men, the King would have been unable to abuse his discretionary power. 1. 17. A plan of Favouritism, &c.-better of this system. These pages demand attentive study; and the student will beware of taking for aphorisms which can be detached the frequent maxims which form the successive landing-places of the reasoning. Burke here assumes a concealed influence on the part of Lord Bute, though the existence of such an influence at this time has been doubted on good authority. Chatham, Grafton, and North were no favourites. 1. 33. The laws reach but a very little way. Vide supra, p. 2. P. 33, 1. 6. scheme upon paper-cp. 'paper government,' p. 165. 1. 19. We are no-ways concerned, &c., i. e. the people. 1. 26. security of ideots-the old spelling, derived from the low Latin of the law. ... P. 34, 1. 6. In arbitrary Governments, &c. ... Both the Law and the Magistrates are the creatures of Will. All legislative power is in the strict sense arbitrary. If it be objected that I am a defender of arbitrary powers, I confess I cannot comprehend how any society can be established or subsist without them; for the establishment of government is an arbitrary act, wholly depending on the will of men. Magna Charta, which comprehends our antient laws, and all the subsequent statutes, were not sent from heaven, but made according to the will of men. . . The difference between good and ill governments is not, that those of one sort have an arbitrary power which the others have not: for they all have it: but that those that are well constituted, place this power so as it may be beneficial to the people, and set such rules as are hardly to be transgressed, &c.' Sidney, ch. iii. s. 45. 1. 10. every sort of government, &c. Cp. the principle of Montesquieu, that legislation should be relative to the principle as well as to the organisation of each Government. Raleigh, in his Maxims of State, has a remark very similar to that of Burke. 1. 13. free Commonwealth. Burke boldly points out the real character of the English constitution, and shows that the only alternative is a government practically arbitrary. 1. 21. The popular election of magistrates, &c. The analogy of England with a republic like that of ancient Rome is firmly traced. 1. 26. did not admit of such an actual election, &c. Burke's observations on this point are confirmed by a comparison of the democratic institutions which have been set up in different parts of the world, since they were penned, with the English political system. On the weakness of looking more to the form than to the working of an institution, cp. Aristotle, Pol., Book v. P. 35, 1. 7. the King with the controul of his negative. The circumstance that in England the royal veto has practically not been exercised for a century and a half, whilst the President of the United States (Tyler) has lately made frequent and energetic use of it, is often adduced as a proof of the powerlessness of the British Crown, whereas it is really of itself a great proof of the advancement of the English Constitution, and its wealth in preventive remedies (Vorbeugungsmitteln). Dahlmann, Politik, Th. 1. cap. 5. Cp. vol. ii. All the struggle, all the dissension, arose afterwards upon the preference of a despotic democracy to a government of reciprocal controul. The triumph of a victorious party was over the principles of a British constitution.' 1. 24. Every good political institution, &c. The practical doctrines of the |