in the ripeness of their time, the same tragedies will be acted in England. Carra, and Condorcet, and Santerre, and Manuel, and Petion, and their brethren the Priestleys, the Coopers, and the Watts-the deputies of the body of the dissenters and others at Manchester, who embraced Carra in the midst of the Jacobin club ;-the revolution-society that received Petion in London ;-the whole race of the affiliated, who are numerous and powerful, whose principles, dispositions, and wishes are the very same, are as closely connected as ever; and they do not fail to mark and to use everything that shows a remissness, or any equivocal appearance, in government, to their advantage. I conceive that the Duke of Brunswick is as much fighting the battle of the crown of England as the Duke of Cumberland did at Culloden. I conceive that any unnecessary declarations on our part will be to him, and to those who are disposed to put a bound to the empire of anarchy and assassination, a signal discouragement. The cause of my dread, and perhaps over-officious, anxiety at this time, has arisen from what (you will have the goodness to pardon me) I thought rather too much readiness to declare on other occasions. Perhaps I talk of a thing not at all in contemplation. If no thoughts of the kind have been entertained, your lordship will be pleased to consider this as waste paper. It is, at any rate, but as a hint to yourself, and requires no answer.. MY DEAR MADAM, I have the honour to be, &c. &c. TO MRS. CREWE.1 No date. Probably the end of 1794. Mrs. Burke has shown me what you have written about the conversations which came to your ears relative to the allowance which the committee makes to the French clergy. To be sure, those who go about begging must expect to hear, and they ought patiently to bear, a great many churlish things. One object to many people, either in giving or refusing, is to exercise a sort of power. It is a sort of Wife of John Crewe, Esq., many years M. P. for Cheshire, and raised to the peerage in 1806. Her portrait was painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and will be found in the 2nd vol. of his engraved Works. purchase of their benevolence, to let them indulge themselves in a sort of dominion. I really am in doubt whether it answers any purpose to give to many of this description any answer; for what they say is not from doubt that aims at being satisfied, but from sheer ill-nature and perverseness, and to prevent other people from doing the good which they are unwilling to do themselves. Who told them that Mr. Wilmot and his committee allow a farthing more than is absolutely necessary? Who told them that they who live in London are not the best judges of what will maintain a man there? Who told them that these unfortunate victims of our common cause live in luxury? Who told them that it is not more difficult for them to be persuaded to receive the most scanty measure of their necessities, than to persuade the committee to give it? We know that the charity of many people is so closely connected with the idea of sturdy beggars, vagrants, and thieves, that they can hardly separate from them the objects of benevolence in their own minds. The first process in their scheme of humanity is the hatred and contempt of those who are to profit by it. In their idea of relief, there is always included something of punishment. But we must pass them. I trust that many will be still found of a pure and unmixed good-nature, which many have shown, and which you show abundantly. What is enough? It is a word of large import with regard to ourselves,-very limited with regard to others. However, if there be any benevolent people that are entangled with these objections, you will bid them consider what a footman's board wages is in London, who has his master's house to lodge in, and has his firing, and candle-light, and clothing found. To be sure if we could collect the whole into one house, as is the case of about 600 that are collected at Winchester, they might be in London, as these are at Winchester, maintained for less money. But to build and furnish a house in London, capable of containing 1500, or indeed half the number, would exhaust more money than we have. The same objection would be to the hiring and furnishing of several houses. It was on full consideration that the committee fixed this allowAt first it was not sufficient, and on a calculation which I myself presented to the committee, it was raised to thirteen shillings; but as these worthy and discontented peo ance. ple began to know a little better the ways of the town, and in what manner they might pack four or five together in a miserable room, in which they might cook their victuals in common, they themselves proposed the reduction. How they made it answer, I know not; but I am sure that, in London, the committee, if they undertook the matter, could not maintain them at a much larger price. As to clothing, except for a few, who were at first in a manner stripped naked, no provision has been made. The manner of living of common soldiers is in the eye of these objectors; but they forget that, in quarters, the inn-keepers are obliged to find for the soldiers lodging, fire, candle-light, small-beer, salt, and vinegar, gratis. These are large helps. Then the economical discipline of the army is itself a help, which in no part of civil life can be had. Some of the clergy cut off two or three of their scanty meals in a week to clothe themselves. At Winchester, Lady Rockingham has given 600 flannel waistcoats, besides furnishing something towards the employment of those who can earn something by trades. people at large, and individuals, have done much. I hope they will not be tired of doing good to these refugees, in whom they may contemplate at their ease what their own situation would infallibly have been, had our English Jacobins succeeded; with this unhappy difference against us, that the French Jacobins would not have left us place of retreat. Adieu! my dear madam. God bless you, and give success to your design! Yours ever, EDM. BURKE. Hannah More, by all means. There is a book published by Abbé Baruel, which contains the most ample account of this persecution which has appeared; I believe perfectly to be depended upon. Matters have come to my knowledge which convince me that he falls short rather than exceeds. It is called "Histoire du Clergé pendant la Revolution Françoise." Your bookseller can get it. William Burke has taken to town Brissot's book. Cazalès presents his devoirs. I pity, from my soul, those French, who neither know how to rejoice or to be afflicted at any good news on our part. The best wishes of all here to Mr. Crewe. MY DEAR SIR, TO REV. DR. HUSSEY. Beconsfield, May 18, 1795. I don't know exactly why I am so unwilling to write by the post. I have little to say that might not be known to the world; at the same time, there is something unpleasant in talking the confidential language of friendship in the public theatre. It is still worse to put it into the power of any one to make unfaithful representations of it, or to make it the subject of malicious comments. I thank you for your letter; it is full of that good sense and good temper, as well as of that fortitude, which are natural to you. Since persons of so much greater authority than I am, and of so much better judgment, are of opinion you ought to stay, it was clearly right for you to remain at all risks. Indeed, if it could be done with tolerable safety, I wished you to watch over the cradle of those seminaries, on which the future weal or woe of Ireland essentially depends. For you, I dread the revolutionary tribunal of Drogheda. For the country, if some proper mode of education is not adopted, I tremble for the spread of atheism amongst the Catholics. I do not like the style of the meeting in Francis Street. The tone was wholly Jacobinical. In parliament, the language of your friends (one only excepted) was what it ought to be. But that one speech, though full of fire and animation, was not warmed with the fire of heaven. I am sorry for it. I have seen that gentleman but once. He is certainly a man of parts; but one who has dealt too much in the philosophy of France. Justice, prudence, tenderness, moderation, and Christian charity, ought to become the measures of tolerance; and not a cold apathy, or, indeed, rather a savage hatred, to all religion, and an avowed contempt of all those points on which we differ, and on those about which we agree. If what was said in Francis Street was in the first heat, it might be excused. They were given to understand that a change of administration, short only of a revolution in violence, was made, only on account of a disposition in a Lord-Lieutenant to favour Catholics. Many provoking circumstances attended the business; not the least of them was, that they saw themselves delivered over to their enemies, on no other The assembly of the Roman Catholics held April 9th, 1795, in Francis Street Chapel. apparent ground of merit than that they were such. All this is very true; but under every provocation they ought not to be irritated by their enemies out of their principles and out of their senses. The language of the day went plainly to a separation of the two kingdoms. God forbid that anything like it should ever happen! They would both be ruined by it; but Ireland would suffer most and first. The thing, however, is impossible. Those who should attempt that improbability would be undone. If ever the arms, which, indirectly, these orators seem to menace, were to be taken up, surely the threat of such a measure is not wise, as it could add nothing to their strength, but would give every possible advantage to their enemies. It is a foolish language, adopted from the united Irishmen, that their grievances originate from England. The direct contrary. It is an ascendancy which some of their own factions have obtained here, that has hurt the Catholics with this government. It is not as an English government that ministers act in that manner, but as assisting a party in Ireland. When they talk of dissolving themselves as a Catholic body, and mixing their grievances with those of their country, all I have to say is, that they lose their own importance as a body by this amalgamation; and they sink real matters of complaint in those which are factious and imaginary. For in the name of God, what grievance has Ireland, as Ireland, to complain of with regard to Great Britain; unless the protection of the most powerful country upon earth,-giving all her privileges, without exception, in common to Ireland, and reserving to herself only the painful preeminence of ten-fold burthens, be a matter of complaint. The subject, as a subject, is as free in Ireland as he is in England. As a member of the empire, an Irishman has every privilege of a natural-born Englishman, in every part of it, in every occupation, and in every branch of commerce. No monopoly is established against him anywhere ; and the great staple manufacture of Ireland is not only not prohibited, not only not discouraged, but it is privileged in a manner that has no example. The provision trade is the same; nor does Ireland, on her part, take a single article from England, but what she has with more advantage than she could have it from earth. I say nation any nothing of the immense advantage she derives from the use of the English capital. In what country upon earth is it, upon |