y the vehemence and the vigor of his opposition
to a movement which commanded the admiration of his most intimate friends
and closest political allies. While the Revolution was still almost in
its infancy, while Sheridan and Fox vied with each other in the warmth of
their applause, Burke set himself to preach a crusade against the
Revolution with all the unrestrained ardor of his uncompromising nature.
No words of Fox or of Sheridan, no resolution of clubs, no delegated
enthusiasm had anything like the same effect in aiding, that Burke's
famous pamphlet had in injuring the French Revolution, in the eyes not
merely of the mass of the English people, but in the eyes of a very great
number of people in the countries of Europe. People whose business it
was to be king, to use the famous phrase of a then reigning prince,
readily welcomed Burke's "Reflexions on the French Revolution," which was
soon disseminated all over the Continent in a French translation.
Naturally enough it appealed to the Emperor of Germany, to the Empress
Catherine of Russia, to the French princes sheltering in Coblentz and
boasting of the revenge they would take on the Revolution when the King
should enjoy his own again. Naturally enough it appealed to George the
Third as a book which every gentleman ought to read. Kings and princes
everywhere, who felt that at any moment their own thrones might begin to
rock unsteadily beneath them, inevitably applauded the unexpected
assistance of the greatest orator and thinker of his age.

{297}

Such applause alone would not have made Burke's pamphlet the formidable
weapon that it proved to be in the hands of reaction, or have brought
about the grave results that may be directly attributed to Burke's pen.
The words of Burke created, the breath of Burke fanned, a public opinion
in England and abroad that was in direct antagonism to everything that
was meant by those who formed and who guided or were driven by the
Revolution. It would be hard to find a parallel in history for the
influence thus exerted by a single man against so great a force. All the
conservatism of Burke's nature--the conservatism that led him to regard
the English Parliamentary system of his day as well-nigh ideally perfect,
and that prompted him to resist so steadily and so successfully Pitt's
proposals of Parliamentary reform--concentrated itself against what he
believed to be the spirit of anarchy newly arisen in France. The
Revolution