The Writings and Speeches of Edmund Burke

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Cosimo, Inc., Jan 1, 2008 - History - 600 pages
This 12-volume set contains the complete life works of EDMUND BURKE (1729-1797), Irish political writer and statesman. Educated at a Quaker boarding school and at Trinity College in Dublin, Burke's eloquence gained him a high position in Britain's Whig party, and he was active in public life. He supported limitations on the power of the monarch and believed that the British people should have a greater say in their government. In general, Burke spoke out against the persecutions perpetuated by the British Empire on its colonies, including America, Ireland, and India. Burke's speeches and writings influenced the great thinkers of his day, including America's Founding Fathers. In Volume II, readers will find: . "Speech on American Taxation" . "Speeches on the Arrival at Bristol and at the Conclusion of the Poll" . "Speech on Moving Resolutions for Conciliation with America" . "Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol, On the Affairs of America" . "Two Letters to Gentlemen of Bristol, On the Bills Depending in Parliament Relative to the Trade of Ireland" . "Speech on Presenting to the House of Commons a Plan for the Better Security of the Independence of Parliament, and the Economical Reformation of the Civil and Other Establishments" . "Speech at Bristol Previous to the Election, September 6, 1780" . "Speech at Bristol on Declining the Poll, September 9, 1780" . "Speech of Mr. Fox's East India Bill" . "A Representation to His Majesty, Moved in the House of Commons"

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Contents

SPEECHES ON ARRIVAL AT BRISTOL AND AT THE CONCLU
81
SPEECH ON Moving Resolutions for CONCILIATION WITH
99
LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL ON THE AFFAIRS
187
Two LETTERS TO GENTLEMEN OF BRISTOL ON THE BILLS
247
SPEECH ON PRESENTING TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS
265
SPEECH AT BRISTOL PREVIOUS TO THE ELECTION Septem
313
SPEECH AT BRISTOL ON DECLINING THE POLL Septem
425
SPEECH ON MR Foxs EAST INDIA BILL December 1 1783
434
A REPRESENTATION TO HIS MAJESTY MOVED IN
539
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Page 117 - Whilst we follow them among the tumbling mountains of ice, and behold them penetrating into the deepest frozen recesses of Hudson's Bay, and Davis's Straits ; — whilst we are looking for them beneath the arctic circle, we hear that they have pierced into the opposite region of polar cold, that they are at the antipodes, and engaged under the frozen serpent of the south.
Page 95 - But, his unbiassed opinion, his mature judgment, his enlightened conscience, he ought not to sacrifice to you, to any man, or to any set of men living.
Page 181 - We ought to elevate our minds to the greatness of that trust to which the order of Providence has called us. By adverting to the dignity of this high calling, our ancestors have turned a savage wilderness into a glorious empire ; and have made the most extensive, and the only honourable conquests ; not by destroying, but by promoting, the wealth, the number, the happiness of the human race.
Page 124 - The fact is so; and these people of the southern colonies are much more strongly, and with a higher and more stubborn spirit, attached to liberty than those to the northward. Such were all the ancient commonwealths; such were our Gothic ancestors; such, in our days, were the Poles, and such will be all masters of .slaves, who are not slaves themselves. In such a people the haughtiness of domination combines with the spirit of freedom, fortifies it, and renders it invincible.
Page 180 - ... the great contexture of this mysterious whole. These things do not make your government. Dead instruments, passive tools as they are, it is the spirit of the English communion that gives all their life and efficacy to them. It is the spirit of the English Constitution, which, infused through the mighty mass, pervades, feeds, unites, invigorates, vivifies every part of the empire, even down to the minutest member.
Page 118 - ... when I know that the Colonies in general owe little or nothing to any care of ours, and that they are not squeezed into this happy form by the constraints of watchful and suspicious government, but that, through a wise and salutary neglect, a generous nature has been suffered to take her own way to perfection; when I reflect upon these effects, when I see how profitable they have been to us, I feel all the pride of power sink, and all presumption in the wisdom of human contrivances melt and die...
Page 119 - I do not choose to consume its strength along with our own ; because in all parts it is the British strength that I consume. I do not choose to be caught by a foreign enemy at the end of this exhausting conflict, and still less in the midst of it. I may escape ; but I can make no insurance against such an event. Let me add. that I do not choose wholly to break the American spirit, because it is the spirit that has made the country.
Page 123 - The Church of England, too, was formed from her cradle under the nursing care of regular government. But the dissenting interests have sprung up in direct opposition to all the ordinary powers of the world, and could justify that opposition only on a strong claim to natural liberty.
Page 17 - The feelings of the colonies were formerly the feelings of Great Britain. Theirs were formerly the feelings of Mr. Hampden, when called upon for the payment of twenty shillings. Would twenty shillings have ruined Mr. Hampden's fortune ? No ! but the payment of half twenty shillings, on the principle it was demanded, would have made him a slave.
Page 116 - At the beginning of the century some of these colonies imported corn from the mother country : for some time past the Old World has been fed from the New. The scarcity which you have felt would have been a desolating famine, if this child of your old age, with a true filial piety, with a Roman charity, had not put the full breast of its youthful exuberance to the mouth of its exhausted parent.

About the author (2008)

Born in Ireland in 1729, Edmund Burke was an English statesman, author, and orator who is best remembered as a formidable advocate for those who were victims of injustice. He was the son of a Dublin lawyer and had also trained to practice law. In the 1760s, Burke was elected to the House of Commons from the Whig party. Burke spent most of his career in Parliament as a member of the Royal Opposition, who was not afraid of controversy, as shown by his support for the American Revolution and for Irish/Catholic rights. His best-known work is Reflections on the French Revolution (1790). Some other notable works are On Conciliation with the American Colonies (1775) and Impeachment of Warren Hastings (1788). Edmund Burke died in 1797.

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