314 BURKE AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.

the new constitution, Burke exclaimed, "The French have shown themselves the ablest architects of ruin who have existed in the world. In a short space

of time they have pulled to the

their

ground their army, their commerce, navy, their arts, and their manufactures." But he stood virtually alone. The Tories, perhaps with some reluctance, followed Pitt, who, at this time liberal in his sympathies, was sincere in his praise of the new French Government. The Whigs, with Fox at their head, naturally hailed with satisfaction the apparent conversion of the French to constitutional principles. Circumstances occurred to justify the confidence of both parties. When, in its angry jealousy of an English settlement at Nootka Sound, Spain applied to France for assistance, the revolutionary party opposed and prevented the war on which the King's ministry was bent. Pitt, therefore, enunciated a maxim of policy which at the present day we all of us accept, that the changes of government in France afforded no reason for distrust or interference on the part of Great Britain. It was a maxim which, at one time, Burke might have approved, and enforced by the abundant illustration he had always at command. But now, excitedly imagining in the Revolution the enemy of everything he valued, the enemy of the traditions of the past, the enemy of a mature and wellordered fabric of social organisation, the enemy of the nice adjustment of ranks and class-distinctions, the enemy of the Church and the old nobility, he cast it aside. He would have no peace with a people who had thrown down the ancient landmarks.

HIS POLITICAL POSITION.

315

We have seen of late what may be accomplished by the genius and enthusiasm of one man when he has, as he believes, a noble and righteous cause to advocate. But the task which Burke undertook and achieved was infinitely greater and more difficult than Mr. Gladstone's. Burke had no following: he had lost the ear of the House, and he had never had any firm hold upon the nation. In the Commons his eloquence had lost its charm. His speeches were too redundant and protracted; his arguments too profound and philosophical. If his earnestness wearied an audience of manyacred squires and wealthy merchants, his want of discretion and his extravagance of language disgusted them. His rising was the signal for the crowded benches to thin rapidly, and his splendid perorations were generally delivered to an almost empty House. The impeachment of Hastings had provoked from him a series of eloquent outbursts, which, for a while, had retrieved his reputation; but as the trial drew its slow length along, he had once more sunk into the sere and yellow leaf of a statesman's decay. But now the French Revolution came like the sound of a trumpet to rouse his energies. He was filled with a new fervour, a new if mistaken earnestness. He would stand up in defence of all that he revered and loved, of the old order against the new, of conservatism and orthodoxy against wild speculation in politics and religion.

He went down to the House on the 9th of February, 1790, prepared with a solemn protest against the sympathy which Fox, the chief of his party, had expressed for the new revolt against law and authority. His speech

316

FOX AND BURKE.

was in his best manner; entirely free from the vulgarity and rant which had latterly deformed his orations; noble, pathetic, eloquent, and full of grand ideas. It contained a dignified and not unjust rebuke of Fox's hasty panegyric on the French Guards who had proved false to their colours and their allegiance. It contained a declaration against despotism everywhere; against the despotism of an absolute monarch; but more especially against the despotism of a plundering, ferocious, tyrannical democracy-democracy without a single virtue of republicanism to redeem its crimes Pitt, who followed Burke, warmly expressed his admiration. "Former differences," he said, "could not preclude him expressing his strongest feelings of gratitude and reverence for the speaker of such sentiments; sentiments which would be received with the greatest esteem by his country, and would hand down his name to posterity with respect and honour." Fox hastened to retract his former ill-advised language, and it was evident that he felt doubtful of the wisdom of the unbounded approbation he had bestowed on the French ideas of Liberty. It was evident also that he shrank from a quarrel with his old friend and colleague, by whom, he said, he had been instructed more than by all other men and books together; by whom he had been taught to love the constitution; and from whom he had acquired nearly all his political knowledge, all certainly, which was most essential, and which he most valued. But Sheridan fanned into a flame the smouldering embers of dissatisfaction. Prompted partly by jealousy of Burke, partly by a ready sympathy with extreme opinions, he broke forth into extravagant praise of the French Revo

SEPARATION OF OLD FRIENDS.

317

lution and of the actors in it; while he charged Burke with deserting from the camp, with assaulting the principles of freedom itself; with defending a cruel tyranny; and with loving to obtrude himself as the libeller of liberty abroad. Burke then rose, and in a tone of lofty indignation remonstrated against language which ought to have been spared, were it only as a sacrifice to the ghost of departed friendship; though the language itself was not new to him, it was but a repetition of what might be perpetually heard at the reforming clubs and societies with which Sheridan had lately become entangled, and for whose plaudits he had chosen to sacrifice his friends, though he might in time find that the value of such praise was not worth the price at which it was purchased. Henceforward they were separated in politics for ever.

A reconciliation between the Whig chiefs was so important in the interests of the party that a meeting for this purpose was held at the house of the Duke of Portland; but the difference of feeling and sentiment was so great that no compromise could be effected. Fox adhered to the opinions he had already enunciated; Windham sided with Burke; and a schism took place which was not closed up for many years.

Burke did not confine himself to speeches in Parliament. His object was to arouse the country, and he betook himself, therefore, to the pen. With almost incredible industry he produced by the month of October his 'Reflections on the French Revolution;' a book of wonderful eloquence, vehement in appeal, luxuriant in imagery, often very beautiful and lofty in thought, but

318

INFLUENCE OF A MORBID IMAGINATION.

sometimes disfigured by a curious narrowness of view. Many passages of exquisite charm of style are still remembered; as, for instance :-"The age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded, and the glory of Europe is extinguished for ever." So, too, the fine allusion to Marie Antoinette, "And surely, never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she just began to move in-glittering like the morning star, full of life and splendour and joy."

There can be no doubt that through all his speeches and writings on the French Revolution, Burke was influenced by a morbid imagination. He flung himself into the new crusade with an ardour which weakened his judgment. The heat of his passions blinded him to the impressions on his very senses. "He saw not," remarks Lord Brougham, "what all other men beheld, but what he wished to see, or what his prejudices and fancies suggested; and having once laid down a dogma, his mind refused to acknowledge the most astounding contradictions that events could offer." Early in 1790, when she had large armies on foot, he pronounced France extinguished as regarded her external power. Even at the end of 1793 when a second attempt at foreign invasion had resulted in the absolute discomfiture of the invaders, and had aroused her whole people to threaten the liberties of Europe, he still saw in her situation nothing but "complete ruin, without the chance of resurrection;" was still sanguine enough to believe that when she recovered