exing questions, or the precise
marking the shadowy boundaries of a complex government. It is simple
peace; sought in its natural course and in its ordinary haunts. It
is peace sought in the spirit of peace; and laid in principles purely
pacific. I propose, by removing the ground of the difference, and by
restoring the former unsuspecting confidence of the colonies in the
mother country, to give permanent satisfaction to your people; and, far
from a scheme of ruling by discord, to reconcile them to each other
in the same act, and by the bond of the very same interest, which
reconciles them to British government." His plan of conciliation, he
declared, was founded on the sure and solid basis of experience, and he
asserted that neither the chimeras of imagination, nor abstract ideas
of right, nor mere general theories of government, ought to receive any
attention. He then entered into a copious display and elucidation of
his subject. He dwelt on the spirit of freedom existing in America,
asserting that their extreme notions of liberty arose from the peculiar
religious spirit which existed in the colonies, which he termed a
refinement on the principles of resistance, and which was carried with
them on their first emigration from England. Law, also, he said, had
fostered this high spirit of liberty, since the study of it was more
universal in America than in any other country in the world, and since
that study made them acute, inquisitive, dexterous, prompt in attack,
ready in defence, and full of resources. Burke next dwelt on the
enlarged population of America, and the increased importance of her
commerce, both in exports and imports, and animated by this view of
their great and growing prosperity, he exclaimed in a lofty tone of
eloquence:--"While we follow them into the north amongst mountains of
ice, while we behold them penetrating the deepest recesses of Hudson's
Bay, while we are looking for them beneath the Arctic circle, thay have
pervaded the antipodes, and engaged under the frozen serpent of the
south: nor is the equinoctial heat more discouraging to them, than the
accumulated winter of the poles; while some of them strike the harpoon
on the coast of Africa, others pursue their gigantic toils on the shores
of the Brazils. There is no climate that is not a witness of their
labours. When I contemplate these things; when I know they owe little
or nothing to any care of ours, but that they have arrived at this
perfec