Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub
[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

PREFACE

ONE of the principal objects aimed at in this edition is to relieve the student from a too exclusive dependence upon Burke for facts and opinions alike, by providing him with historical information and complementary views from other sources. If, as Goldwin Smith asserts (p. xvii), Burke is a rhetorician, and presents only one side of a case, neither the soundness of his judgments nor the quality of his rhetoric can be duly appreciated by him whose knowledge of the relations between England and America is almost wholly derived from Burke's own pages. Payne's otherwise excellent edition seems to me to suffer from the defect just indicated; yet I cannot refrain from acknowledging my indebtedness to him in several respects, not all of which can be explicitly pointed out. On the other hand, I observe he has frequently laid Goodrich's judicious editing under contribution.

The text is that of Dodsley's second edition (see p. 1), corrected, so far as relates to the preamble of the Chester Act, by collation with the Statutes of the Realm. Spelling and punctuation have been freely altered, and in some cases, as in the names of kings, figures have been changed to numeral words, for the sake of self-consistency. Other deviations from my original have been recorded in the Notes. I think I may safely assume that, in all essential respects, no edition of the speech since Dodsley's has had so correct a text as the present, though the differences between this and others would scarcely be discernible save on

the closest inspection. The numbering of the paragraphs is an innovation about which tastes will differ; it has convenience of reference in its favour, but on the other hand it may be thought to break the continuity of perusal, and mar the beauty of the page.

The organism of the speech has been displayed somewhat more clearly than hitherto, and in a manner which shows the applicability to the oration of rhetorical principles with which Burke must have been conversant, and which had been observed by one of his great models, Cicero. The mode adopted has been the insertion of subheadings in brackets, wherever an important member of the speech-Exordium, Proof, etc.—begins.

In conclusion, I desire to express, for the publishers and for myself, our sense of the courtesy with which permission has been accorded by various authors and publishers to use extracts from copyright works.

YALE UNIVERSIty, June, 1896.

A. S. C.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
« ПредишнаНапред »