urke:

"The reader is speedily conscious," he writes, "of the precedence
in Burke of the facts of morality and conduct, of the
many interwoven affinities of human affection and historical
relation, over the unreal necessities of mere abstract logic....
Besides thus diffusing a strong light over the awful tides of
human circumstance, Burke has the sacred gift of inspiring men
to use a grave diligence in caring for high things, and in making
their lives at once rich and austere."

Here are the considered judgments of a man who, by political experience,
by literary power, and the study of conduct, has made himself an
unquestioned judge in the affairs of State, in letters, and in morality.
As examples of the justice of his eulogy let me quote a few sentences
from those very speeches which Lord Morley thus extols--the speeches on
the American War of Independence. Speaking on Conciliation with the
Colonies in 1775, Burke said:

"Permit me to observe that the use of force alone is but
temporary. It may subdue for a moment, but it does not
remove the necessity of subduing again; and a nation is not
governed which is perpetually to be conquered.... Terror is
not always the effect of force, and an armament is not a victory."

Speaking of the resistance of a subject race to the predominant power,
Burke ironically suggested:

"Perhaps a more smooth and accommodating spirit of
freedom in them would be more acceptable to us. Perhaps
ideas of liberty might be desired more reconcilable with an
arbitrary and boundless authority. Perhaps we might wish
the colonists to be persuaded that their liberty is more secure
when held in trust for them by us (as their guardians during
a perpetual minority) than with any part of it in their own
hands."

And, finally, speaking of self-taxation as the very basis of all our
liberties, Burke exclaimed:

"They (British statesmen) took infinite pains to inculcate
as a fundamental principle, that in all monarchies the people
must in effect themselves, mediately or immediately, possess
the power of granting their own money, or no shadow of liberty
could subsist."

It was the second of these noble passages that I once heard declaimed on
the sea-beach at Madras to an Indian crowd by an Indian speaker, who,
following the precepts of Lord Morley, then Secretary of State for
India, had made Burke's speeches his study by day and night. That phrase
d