ed that he would
vote for the impeachment of that minister who should enter into such
a war, for the purpose of re-establishing the old despotism of the
Bourbons. The deep earnestness of Burke, who next spoke, contrasted
strangely with the flippancy of Sheridan. Burke said that this day
was indeed a trial of the constitution. He agreed with an honourable
gentleman, in regarding the present as a momentous crisis; but for
reasons different from those which he had assigned. Liberty and
monarchy, he continued, are connected in this country; they were never
found asunder; they have flourished together for a thousand years; and
from this union has sprung the prosperity and glory of the nation. With
impassioned eloquence Burke affirmed, that there was a faction in this
country who wished to submit it to France, that our government might be
reformed upon the French system; and that the French rulers, cherishing
views on this country encouraged that faction, and were disposed to aid
it in overturning our constitution. As a proof of this, Burke read an
address, which men, calling themselves Englishmen, presented at the bar
of the convention on the very day in which there had been a discussion
respecting the union of Savoy with France; and to which address the
president, in his reply, remarked:--"That royalty in Europe was in the
agonies of death; that the declaration of right, now placed by the side
of thrones, was a fire which, in the end, would consume them; and he
even hoped that the time was not far distant when France, England,
Scotland, Ireland, all Europe! all mankind! would form but one peaceful
family." Burke asked, whether, if Englishmen had applied to Louis XVI.
to reform our government, such language would not have been considered
as an aggression? Burke declared that the question now was, not whether
we should present an address to the throne, but whether there should
be a throne at all; and he concluded with recommending unanimity, and
representing the danger which might arise from the progress of French
armies, if not speedily resisted. Mr. Erskine, who was a member of the
Society for Parliamentary Reform, justified that society and himself,
and blamed ministers for delaying to prosecute the author of the "Rights
of Man" till nearly two years after its publication. Erskine charged
Burke with inconsistency; and concluded with recommending the house to
meet the complaints of the people, not with abuse, but by removing