FOOTNOTE:
[29] On the 15th of February, 1788, Edmund Burke began a four days'
speech in the impeachment of Warren Hastings.
II. CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA[30]
Sir, I have in general no very exalted opinion of the virtue of paper
government; nor of any politics in which the plan is to be wholly
separated from the execution. But when I saw that anger and violence
prevailed every day more and more, and that things were hastening
towards an incurable alienation of our colonies, I confess my caution
gave way. I felt this as one of those few moments in which decorum
yields to a higher duty. Public calamity is a mighty leveler; and there
are occasions when any chance of doing good must be laid hold on, even
by the most inconsiderable person. To restore order and repose to an
empire so great and so distracted as ours, is, merely in the attempt, an
undertaking that would ennoble the flights of the highest genius, and
obtain pardon for the efforts of the meanest understanding.
The proposition is peace. Not peace through the medium of war; not
peace to be hunted through the labyrinth of intricate and endless
negotiations; not peace to arise out of universal discord fomented, from
principle, in all parts of the empire.
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