BURKE. 
his fancy drew as caufiog them, contained an equal degree 
of interefl and pallion with any exhibited on the ftage. He' 
brought forward a firing of motions, as the foundation of 
an enquiry into the conduct of Haftings. Mr. Pitt very 
briefly oppofed this, becaufe there were not proofs of the 
fa£t, on the fuppofition of which Burke grounded his en¬ 
quiry. It does not appear that at that time there really 
was that undoubted evidence of delinquency, which only 
could fupport the propriety of the motions. Burke’s.fan- 
cy and paflions, getting much warmer from oppofition, 
pictured to hunt Haftings as the greateft monder that had 
ever exifted. How far he was blameable or praife-worthy 
in bringing forward this Angular profecution, is a queftion 
of that extreme delicacy, that it is likely to remain for ever 
undecided. 
The attention of the public was diverted from the im¬ 
peachment, to the corned excited by the quedion of re¬ 
gency. On its being afcertained that a temporary incapa¬ 
city exided for exercidng the functions of government, 
Mr. Fox’s idea was that, during the incapacity, there was 
a temporary demife of the crown; and that, therefore, 
the next heir l'hould affume for the time the powers of go¬ 
vernment. Mr. Pitt’s opinion was, thatln fuch a cafe it 
reded .with parliament to fuppiy the deficiency. Burke 
fupported the opinion of Mr. Fox, in language the mod 
intemperate and by conduCt the mod violent. &o intem¬ 
perate indeed and fo violent was he, that even his alfo- 
ciates and coadjutors expreded their difapprobation ; and 
he was called to order. To this he replied, “ Order is an 
admirable thing, perfect in all its limbs, only unfortunate¬ 
ly it fquints, and wants the aid of fome expert oculid to 
enable it to fee draight. I alfo with to preferve the utmod 
delicacy; but delicacy, though a being of perfect fym- 
metry, like the former, is only a fubfidiary virtue, and 
ought always to give way to truth, where the cafe was 
fuch, that the truth was infinitely of more confequence 
than the delicacy.” He drew up the quedions addreffed 
to Mr. Gill, the lord mayor, which contained very bitter 
invectives againd administration; he alfo wrote an anfwer 
to Mr. Pitt’s letter to the prince; and in both of thefe 
competitions.he feems to be in polfeflion of his former 
powers. 
We now come to thelad and mod important epoch in 
the life of Mr. Burke,—the French revolution :—that point 
whence, if lie did not really turn back in the orbit in which 
he had hitherto dione fo brightly as the able advocate of 
popular right and liberty, he certainly appeared, at lead 
to common eyes, to become retrograde. To prepare the 
reader for the line of conduct which Mr. Burke adopted 
with refpeCt to that great event, his biographer, Dr. Bif- 
fet, enters into a difquifition on the old government of 
France, the progrefs of metaphyfical learning, which led 
to the fubverfion of- that government, the procefs of the 
revolution, the violence and injudice with which it was 
accompanied, and the extravagant notions of liberty en¬ 
tertained by fome who approved it : but, more efpecially, 
he dwells on the effects which it produced on the pen of 
Mr. Burke. “ Under the old government of France (he 
fays), the fuggedion of a pried or a prodilute would often 
defolate a province, and drive from the country its mod 
indudrious inhabitants; the peafant was, like the ox, the 
mere property of his fuperior, and the tyranny of the lord 
was only fufpended and checked by the tyranny of the of¬ 
ficers of government, who dragged him from his darving 
family to work in fome corvee of public concern, or of ab- 
furd magnificence ; or to fell him fait, refipecting which he 
was neither permitted to choofe the time at which he would 
purchafe, nor the quantity he would take.” 
Burke, as the friend of liberty, thus reprobated the old 
defpotifm of France: although he thought it in the reign 
of Lewis XVI. foftened in its exercife by the progrefs of 
civilization, and the perfonal character of the monarch, 
dill he deemed the welfare of the people to red on an lin¬ 
kable balis, and to require very condderable reform before 
it could be a good government. Yet, edeeming arbitrary 
Vol. 111 . No. 145. 
power a great evil, lie knew that unwife efforts to fliake. 
it oil' might produce greater calamities. It was not merely' 
the podellion of it that confiiituted it a blefling, but the 
podellion of it in fuch a degree, and with fuch regulations, 
as could make it fubfidiary to virtue and happinefs, with¬ 
out being able to produce vice and mifery. its operation 
as a blefling or a curie depended, lie contends, partly on 
its intrinfic nature, partly on the character of its fubjeCts, 
and partly on more extrinfic caufes. He uniformly con¬ 
troverted thofe doctrines of the rights of wan, which would 
allow the fame degree of liberty to all perfons and in all 
circuntdances. Like Livy, he did not think a horde of 
barbarians equally fitted for the conteds of freedom, as men 
in a more advanced dage of knowledge and civilization. 
Neither did he conceive that every one date, though re¬ 
fined, was equally fit for the beneficial exercife of liberty, 
as every other date not more refined. The controul, he 
thought, mud be drong in the direCt ratio of pa (lion, as 
well as the inverfe of knowledge and reafon. “ I do not 
(he faid) rejoice to hear that men may do what they pleafe, 
unlefs I know what it pleafes them to do.” And, in ano¬ 
ther place, “ Society cannot exid unlefs a controuling pow¬ 
er upon will and appetite be placed fomew here ; and the 
lefs of it there is within, the more there mud be without. 
It is ordained in the eternal conditution of things, that 
men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their paflions 
forge their fetters. 
Jn confidering the French revolution, his expanfive 
mind has not viewed parts only, but the whole. His al- 
lufions to the accomplifhments and misfortunes of the 
queen of France, aie highly expreflive : “ It is now fix- 
teen or feventeen years fince 1 law the queen of France, 
then the dauphinefs, at Verfailles ; and furely never light¬ 
ed on this orb, which (lie hardly feemed to touch, a more 
delightful vifion. I law her jud above the horizon, decora¬ 
ting and cheering the elevated fph.ere the jud began to 
move in; glittering like the morning-bar, full of life, 
and fplendour, and joy. Oh! what a revolution I and 
what a heart mud I have, to contemplate without emo¬ 
tion that elevation, and that fall ! Little did I dream that, 
when die added titles of veneration to thofe of enthufiadic, 
didant, refpettfu), love, die diould ever be obliged to 
carry the fliarp antidote againd difgrace concealed in that 
bofoin little did I dream that I diould have lived to fee 
fuch difaders fallen upon her in a nation of gallant men, 
in a nation of men of honour and of cavaliers. I thou ght 
ten thoufand fwords mud have leaped from their fcab- 
bards to avenge even a look that threatened her with in- 
fult. But the.age of chivalry is gone.” The fame genius 
exhibits throughout the work 'finking examples of the 
pathetic, the terrible, the fob lime. The following few 
lines appear to be the dictates of a prophetic fpirit: (peak¬ 
ing of the French republic, he fays, “ In the prefent form 
it can hardly remain; but, before its final fettlement, it 
may be obliged to pafs, as one of our poets fays, through 
great varieties of untried being, and in all its tranfmigra- 
tions to be purified by .fire and blood.” One who had not 
read the work, would think that fuch a defeription had 
proceeded from the actual furvey of the violent and mul¬ 
tiplied vicifiitudes and revolutions of the French govern¬ 
ment, and its pernicious and bloody conlequences to the 
civilized world, and not frpm anticipation. In fome parts 
oi the Reflexions, however, Burke’s imagination and feel¬ 
ings have carried him beyond the bounds of cool reflect¬ 
ing reafon; and in fome in dances even beyond truth. But, 
though there may be too high colouring in fome portions 
of this extraordinary performance, where is there to be 
met with a work which fo completely unfolded the prin¬ 
ciples of thought and aCtion that guided and prompted 
the French revolutionids; which fo accurately, minutely, 
and fully, predicted the confequences of fuch theory and 
fuch praCtice? When this production made its appear¬ 
ance, it was by all celebrated as the effort of uncommon 
genius, although very different notions were entertained 
concerning its reafoning. By thofe who were enamoured 
6 S of 
