Edmund Burke's changing justification for intervention

Historical Journal

Volumn 48, Issue 1, 2005, Pages 65-100

  Hampsher Monk, Iain ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF EXETER   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS; POLITICAL HISTORY; THEORETICAL STUDY;

EASTERN HEMISPHERE; EURASIA; EUROPE; FRANCE; WESTERN EUROPE; WORLD;

ROMAN;

EID: 19944404235     PISSN: 0018246X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0018246X04004224     Document Type: Review

References (294)

1. Recent discussions are to be found in Jennifer M. Welsh, Edmund Burke and international relations (Basingstoke and New York, 1995), esp. ch. 5 'Interventionism';
2. idem, 'Edmund Burke and the commonwealth of Europe, the cultural bases of international order', in I. Clark and I. B. Neumann, eds., Classical theories of international relations (London, 1996);
3. David Armitage, 'Edmund Burke and reason of state', Journal of the History of Ideas, 61 (2000), pp. 617-34;
4. David Boucher, 'The character of the history of the philosophy of international relations and the case of Edmund Burke', Review of International Studies, 17 (1991), pp. 127-48.
5. The historical periodization 'Westphalian' requires caution. For writers of Burke's generation, the watershed treaty in establishing the new order of state-integrity and a balance of power was the Peace of Utrecht (1713), but the theoretical formulation of this was provided by Emmerich de Vattel in his Le droit des gens (1758).
6. The founders of what has become known as 'The English school' of international relations identify Burke as the progenitor of its central idea of 'international society': Martin Wight, 'Why is there no international theory?', in Herbert Butterfield and Martin Wight, eds., Diplomatic investigations: essays in the theory of international politics (London, 1966), pp. 17-34;
7. R. J. Vincent, 'Edmund Burke and the theory of international relations', Review of International Studies, 10 (1984), pp. 205-18.
8. On the 'English school' see now Tim Dunne, Inventing international society: a history of the English school (Basingstoke and New York, 1998).
9. Treatments of Burke's views on this subject tend to present them as essentially uniform. Welsh claims that in the Letter to a member of the National Assembly of Jan. 1791 'one can find the germ of all subsequent arguments made by Burke regarding the need for outside intervention'. Burke and international relations, p. 129;
10. also Armitage, 'Reason of state', p. 627: 'the fundamental argument, derived from necessity and based on the vestiges of the Roman and neo-Roman theory of reason of state, was contained in the Reflections itself'.
11. See e.g. D. W. Grieg, International law (London, 1970), ch. 1: 'Nature and sources of international law'. Grieg lists treaties, customs, jurists, decisions of international tribunals, etc.
12. In the opening section of Justinian's famous Digest the ius gentium is glossed as 'the sum of rules common to all legal systems'. J. H. Burns, ed., Cambridge history of medieval political thought (Cambridge, 1988), p. 44. Aquinas acknowledged both inductive and deductive derivations, Summa theologica, 1a, 11ae, Qu. 95, art. 4.
13. See briefly J. L. Brierly, The law of nations (Oxford, 1938), pp. 10-11;
14. and on the English assimilation of ius gentium to international common custom, inter alia Alain Wijffels, 'Ius gentium in the court of admiralty', in A. D. E. Lewis and D. J. Ibbetson, eds., The Roman law tradition (Cambridge, 1994), pp. 119-29;
15. and more generally, Peter Stein, Roman law in European history (Cambridge, 1999).
16. Emmerich de Vattel, Le droit des gens (1758, 2 vols., Washington, 1916). All translations are my own. Translation is complicated by the English convention of referring to the 'law of nations' and distinguishing, which neither French nor Latin consistently do here, between right and law. Preface, p. viii: 'The moderns generally agree in keeping the name Law of Nations [droit des gens], for the right [droit] which should hold betwe en nations or sovereign states. They differ only in the idea in which they ground the origin of this Right and its bases. The celebrated GROTIUS understood by law of nations [droit des gens] a right, [droit] established by the common consent of peoples, and he distinguishes it also from Natural Right.' Vattel then quotes Grotius to the effect that the fact that different peoples agree is 'either a just consequence, drawn from the principles of Nature, or a universal consensus. The first discloses the Right [droit] of Nature, the other, the Law [droit] of Nations.' Burke, not given to referencing his sources, nevertheless identifies Vattel on several occasions (cited below).
17. On Vattel's status see Charles Fenwick, 'The authority of Vattel', 2 parts, American Political Science Review, 7 (1913), pp. 395-410, and 8 (1914), pp. 375-92;
18. and see F. S. Ruddy, International law in the Enlightenment: the background of Emmerich de Vattel's Le droit des gens (New York, 1975);
19. and F. Whelan, 'Vatell's doctrine of the state', History of Political Thought, 9 (1988), pp. 59-90.
20. Vattel comments: 'as natural right [droit naturel] properly speaking is the law of individuals, founded on the nature of man, the right of natural peoples [le droit d es gens naturel] is the natural law i la loi naturelle] of political societies founded on the nature of those societies. But [whilst needing to be separately articulated] these two methods come down to the same thing.' Droit des gens, I, Preface, fn. † p. xii.
21. Ibid., 1, p. 11: 'les Nations, composées d'hommes, considérées comme autant de personnes libres qui vivent ensemble dans l'état de Nature, sont naturellement égales, tiennent de la nature les mêmes droits'.
22. Ibid.: 'Une Nation est done maitresse de ses actions ... tant qu'elles n'est liée que d'une obligation interne. Si elle abuse de sa liberté, elle péche; mais les autres doivent le souffrir, n'aïant aucune droit de lui commander.' Nations thus have neither a right nor a duty of intervention in the affairs of other states.
23. Ibid.: 'l'effet de tout cela est d'opérer ... une parfaite égalité de droits entre les Nations, dans l'administration de leurs affaires & dans la poursuite de leurs prétensions, sans égard à la justice intrinséque de leur Conduite, dont il n'appartient pas aux autres de juger définitivement'.
24. Ibid., 1, p. 287: 'si la forme du Gouvernement vient à changer chez une Nation, elle n'en conservera pas moins le rang & les honneurs, dont elle est en possession'. This is part of his more general doctrine of national, as opposed to dynastic patrimonial territorialism;
25. see Whelan, 'Vatell's docrine', pp. 71-2.
26. See, for example: Chris Brown, Terry Nardin and Nicholas Rengger, eds., International relations in political thought (Cambridge, 2002), p. 250.
27. Krasner claims that 'every major peace settlement from Westphalia to Dayton has involved violations of the sovereign state model'. It was 'not a set of constitutive rules' but 'a widely available cognitive script', one of a 'repertoire of normative options'. Krasner, in Michael Cox, Tim Dunne, and Keith Booth, eds., Empires and states: great transformations in international politics (Cambridge, 2001), pp. 41-2.
28. Although Burke wrote at least ten substantial pieces on the revolution in the last five years of his life, he continually expressed his weariness and resolve never to 'write one more word on the subject, convinced as I am of its utter inutility'. Thomas W. Copeland, general ed., The correspondence of Edmund Burke (10 vols., Cambridge and Chicago, 1958-78) (hereafter Corr.), VI, p. 212, to comtesse de Montrond, 25 Jan. 1791;
29. 'I have Duties and occupations at home, public and private, which will not suffer me to continue longer with my thoughts abroad', and to de la Bintinaye, Mar. 1791 Corr., VI, pp. 242-3;
30. and 'I have done with this subject, I believe for ever.' Thoughts on French affairs, in Paul Langford, general ed., Writings and speeches of Edmund Burke (in progress, Oxford, 1981) (hereafter W&s), VIII, p. 386;
31. and to Loughborough, 12 Jan. 1794, Corr., VII, p. 518. Burke's other major preoccupations were the Hastings trial and Catholic relief in Ireland.
32. Burke to Frances, 20 Feb. 1790, responding to comments on an early draft of Reflections, Corr., VI, p. 92.
33. In extolling the English tradition of politics Burke did not deny that other nations (such as the French) might have their own, and indeed should make use of them (Reflections, W&s, VIII pp. 85ff, 175ff). Burke defended traditionalism, as well as the English tradition.
34. 'Your appeal in effect is to all Europe', Francis to Burke, 19 Feb. 1790, Corr., VI, pp. 85-7;
35. 'I knew that you was going to give a great lesson to your own country and to the world ... But ... I consider this book as the rudiments in which we ought all to learn to read, and yet as the new and better Aristotle ... more practically beneficial to ourselves and to the whole world than anything the Press ... has yet bestowed since its invention', Sir Gilbert Elliot to Burke, 6 Nov. 1790, Corr., vi, pp. 155-6.
36. 'The present Distemper of France is far more likely to be contagious than the old one; for it is not quite easy to spread a passion for servitude among the people; but in all evils of the opposite kind our natural inclinations are flattered', Speech on the army estimates (Feb. 1790), Burke's works (6 vols., London, 1887), III, p. 272 (this edition will be used where a work is not yet available in W&s. It will be referred to as Works).
37. Leeds to the duke of Dorset (British ambassador in France), 31 July 1789 (British Library (BL) Add. MS 28064), and Grenville to Buckingham, 14 Sept. 1789, the duke of Buckingham and Chandos, ed., Memoirs of the courts and cabinets of George the Third (2 vols., London, 1853), II, p. 165;
38. Pitt to Hester, countess of Chatham, 14 July 1789, in Earl Stanhope, Life of the Right Honourable William Pitt (4 vols., London, 1861-2), 11, p. 38.
39. All quoted in John Ehrman, The younger Pitt (3 vols., London, 1969-96), II: The reluctant transition, pp. 4, 47, 4.
40. Speech on the army estimates (Feb. 1790), Works, III, p. 271.
41. See also, Burke to unknown, Jan. 1790, 'there are few here such antigallicans as not to feet some pity on the deplorable view of the wreck of France.... till I saw it, I could not conceive that any men in public could have shewn so little mercy to their country', Corr., VI, p. 80.
42. Army Estimates, Works, III, pp. 272-3: 'In the last age we were in danger of being entangled by the example of France in the net of relentless despotism. Our present danger ... is ... of being led ... to an imitation of the excesses of an irrational, unprincipled, proscribing, confiscating, plundering, ferocious, bloody and tyrannical democracy.'
43. 'The power ... to fix the state upon these bases of morals and politics which are our own and immemorial ... must come from without ... given by those neighbours on motives of safety to themselves', W&s , VIII, p. 305.
44. Burke made clear he spoke in a private capacity, ibid., p. 308.
45. He later explained that 'part of the letter was to exculpate myself from some faults [in Reflections] ... The rest was to shew, from the actual State of France,... the utter impossibility of a counter revolution from any internal Cause.' 'To strengthen itself the Monarchy had weakened every other force: to unite the nation to itself it had dissolved all other ties ... Your sole hope seems to me to rest in the disposition of the Neighbouring powers and in their ability to yield you assistance', to de la Bintinaye, Mar. 1791, Corr., VI, pp. 241-2.
46. W&s, VIII, pp. 294-5.
47. Hints for a memorial, W&s, VIII, p. 337.
48. Burke to John Trevor (Jan. 1791): 'no opinion at all of internal remedies ... I cannot persuade myself that any thing whatsoever can be effected without a great force from abroad ... nor must that strength be under ordinary conduct. It will require as much political management, as military skill in the commanders ... no Monarchy limited or unlimited, nor any of the old Republics, can possibly be safe as long as this strange nameless, wild, enthusiastic thing is established at the Centre of Europe ... nothing can possibly do it any real service, but to establish it all on its antient Bases. Till that is done, one Man's speculation is as good as anothers', Corr., VI, pp. 217-19.
49. Jennifer Mori, William Pitt and the French Revolution, 1785-1795 (Keele, 1997), stresses this continuity of British foreign policy from the late 1780s through to the early years of the Revolution (pp. 68-71) and the 'scrupulous and complete neutrality' towards revolutionary France (p. 78).
50. When Emperor Leopold II (brother-in-law of Louis XVI) asked for George III's co-operation to 'restore the liberty and honour of the most Christian King [Louis]', George, personally sympathetic, nevertheless reaffirmed his intention 'not to involve [him]self in the internal affairs [of France]'. Cited in Maurice Hutt, Chouannerie and counter-revolution (2 vols., Cambridge, 1983), 1, pp. 99-101.
51. Greville to Auckland, 23 Aug. 1791, Manuscripts of J. B. Fortescue esq. preserved at Dropmore (Historical Manuscripts Commission, 10 vols., London, 1892-1927) (hereafter Dropmore), II, p. 171.
52. T. C. W. Blanning, The origins of the French revolutionary wars (London and New York, 1986), p. 135,
53. citing Archives parlementaires (Paris, 1879-1913), XXXIV, p. 314,
54. and continuing overtures for an alliance through the winter of 1791-2, XXXVII, p. 470.
55. Fox and Burke had differed seriously over the regency crisis (F. O'Gorman, The whig party and the French Revolution (London and New York, 1967), p. 33), but as late the eve of the Quebec Bill on 21 April, the two met to limit die issues to be raised.
56. The dramatic break came to a head on 6 May when Burke emotionally declared their friendship could not survive their differences of principle. 'Debate on the Quebec government bill, 6 May 1791', in Parliamentary history of England from the earliest period (London, 1817) (hereafter Part. hist.), XXIX, esp. cc. 388ff.
57. Dupont (not the Depont of Reflections) exaggerated his closeness to Burke who later wrote apprehensively to Richard that his 'Paris friend' would also want to translate the Appeal! Burke to Richard Burke, 16 Aug. 1791, Corr., VI, p. 341.
58. 'fondée en principes, et les publicistes le plus éstimé', Pierre Gaëton Dupont to Burke, 29 May 1791, Corr., VI, p. 260.
59. Ibid., 'Que dans les cas où l'oppression est si grande que l'opprimé ne peut pas même implorer secours, il suffit d'une notorieté publique non équivoque, pour requerir l'intervention d'une puissance étrangère.' The identity of the 'tres bonne dissertation' is unknown. Dupont cites as his generic authorities Grotius, Pufendorf, and Hubert Languet (then supposed author of the sixteenth-century Vindiciae contra tyrannos) but the argument is close to Vattel's. See below, section III.
60. Pitt did not share Burke's views on the threat posed by the French Revolution. O'Gorman, Whig party, pp. 72-3.
61. Mitchell emphasizes well Burke's isolation, 'Introduction', W&s, VIII, pp. 31-6.
62. L. G. Mitchell Charles James Fox and the disintegration of the whig party, 1782 1794 (Oxford, 1971), pp. 174-5;
63. Burke to C. C. Smith, 22 July 1791, Corr., VI, p. 303.
64. The Appeal was published on 3 August. For the party hierarchy response see E. A. Smith, Whig principles and party politics. Earl Fitzwilliam and the whig party, 1748-1833 (Manchester, 1975), p. 128;
65. and O'Gorman, Whig party, p. 75.
66. Fitzwilliam to Burke, 18 Sept. 1791, Corr., VI, p. 402.
67. Mori, Pitt and the French Revolution, pp. 116-17;
68. Ehrman, Transition, p. 79. Despite what hopes Burke might have had, Pitt's motives seem to have been purely party-political.
69. The three works are Thoughts on French affairs (Dec. 1791),
70. Heads for consideration (Dec. 1792),
71. and Remarks on the policy of the allies (1793): collected by Burke's executors they were published as Three memorials on French affairs (1797).
72. They thus wholly predate in composition, although not in publication, the Letters on a regicide peace, the earliest of which (the 'fourth') was begun in 1795. (W&s, VIII, pp. 335-6.) Three memorials was brought out hastily to forestall pirate editions.
73. The editors also wrote that 'since Vattel is expressly named ... [they] thought proper ... to subjoin an Appendix consisting of passages from that eminent publicist, which were found among Mr Burke's papers, drawn out for his private use'. The editors also refer to 'much discourse they had with him at different times on the effect and application of the extracts'. The extracts from Vattel were also included in the French translations. See See William B. Todd, A bibliography of Edmund Burke (London, 1964), §69, §69f, and §69g, pp. 214-17.
74. Burke to Loughborough, 12 Jan., 1794, Corr., VII, pp. 517-18.
75. The phrase is L. G. Mitchell's who also cites the letter from Sir Gilbert to Lady Elliott, 2 May 1793, W&s, VIII, pp. 44ff.
76. Mitchell, although correctly pointing out that after the break with Fox, Burke's 'two main goals' were to destroy Fox's influence with the whigs and persuade the Ministry to commit to a restorationist war (W&s, VIII, p. 34), subsequently (p. 335) runs the two audiences together as recipients of all four of the Memorials, that is the Hints for a memorial on French affairs, Thoughts on French affairs, Heads for considerations, and Remarks on the policy of the allies.
77. Burke to Loughborough, 12 Jan. 1794, reviewing the occasions of his briefing papers, Corr. VII, p. 517.
78. The 'Montmorin Letter' referred to was the Lettre écrit au nom du Roi ... aux ambassadeurs et ministres résidens prés les cours (23 Apr. 1791) which was printed in the Moniteur, for 25 April. Translated in John Hall Stewart, ed., A documentary survey of the French Revolution (New York, 1951), p. 200.
79. 'I shall finish my Thoughts ... then I think there is an End for ever of my doing anything in the business', to R. Burke jnr, 1 Nov. 1791, Corr., VI, p. 440.
80. Pitt to Elgin, 23 May 1791, cited in Jeremy Black, British foreign policy in an age of revolutions, 1783-1793 (Cambridge, 1994), p. 328;
81. G. Pellew, ed., Life and correspondence of the rt. hon. Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth (3 vols., London, 1847), 1, p. 72,
82. cited in Mori, Pitt and the French Revolution, p. 101.
83. Acknowledged by David P. Fidler and Jennifer M. Welsh, Empire and community: Edmund Burke's writings and speeches on international relations (Boulder, CO, 1999), p. 235.
84. Burke had rehearsed the argument that summer in correspondence with Richard Burke citing the authority of Vattel for a right to intervene on 'which side they please' 'when any country is divided', Burke to Richard Burke, 5 Aug. 1791, Corr., VI, p. 317.
85. Thoughts on French affairs, W&s, VIII, p. 340. Burke, in a footnote, cites Vattel as his authority for this claim: 'See Vattel, b. Ii, c. 4, sect. 56, and b. Ii, c. 18, sect. 296.' Burke was also to use Vattel in defending the autonomy of the Raja of Benares, Chait Singh, against Warren Hastings.
86. The independence of such subordinate sovereigns was defended by the law of nations 'which is the law of India as well as of Europe, because it is a law of reason and the law of Nature ... recognized and digested into order by the labour of learned men, I will refer your lordships to Vattel, Book I, cap 16'. Speech in reply, the second day. Writings and speeches of the Rt. Hon. Edmund Burke (12 vols., Boston, 1901) (hereafter W&s (Boston)), XI, p. 240.
87. On the general use of Vattel in extra-European relations, see C. H. Alexandrowicz, Introduction to the history of the law of nations in the East Indies (Oxford, 1967), esp. pp. 21ff, 151ff.
88. Thoughts, W&s, VIII, pp. 338-40.
89. Ibid., p. 341.
90. Ibid., p. 344.
91. The system as it has been realized, dogmatically as well as practically, in France, makes France the natural head of all factions formed on a similar principle wherever they may prevail', ibid., pp. 345 and ff.
92. Burke earlier refers to them as 'emissaries of sedition', ibid., pp. 385, 386.
93. On 17 February Pitt notoriously claimed in the House, that 'there never was a time in the history of this country, when, ... we might more reasonably expect fifteen years of peace than ... at the present moment', Parl. hist., XXIX, c. 826.
94. Burke had circulated Thoughts to Fitzwilliam who 'had not time to read it' to ministers and the king, on whom 'it produced no effect'. To Fitzwilliam 29 Nov. 1792, Corr., VII, p. 313.
95. Burke commented: 'no answer from any quarter. It is plain they wish to be rid of my interference in any thing', Burke to Richard Burke, 29 Feb. 1792, Corr., VII, p. 81.
96. O'Gorman, Whig party, pp. 78, 91.
97. Burke to Richard Burke, 18 Aug. 1791, Corr., VI, p. 360.
98. Burke annotated notes in translation (in another hand) on Vattel's Droit des gens. The originals are in the Sheffield Public Library Archive, Wentworth Woodhouse muniments (WWM), Burke papers 10.27. Although normally associated with the Remarks on the policy of the allies (headed 'begun in October, 1793') there is no reason to suppose that they or Burke's familiarity with Vattel date only from then. The MSS have been rearranged, but the material around this item dates from 1792.
99. Burke's translation and emphasis of 'Si done, il étoit quelque part une Nation inquiéte & malfaisante, toûjours prête à nuire aux autres, à les traverser, à leur susciter des troubles domestiques; il n'est pas douteux que toutes ne fussent en droit de se joindre pour la réprimer, pour la châtier, & même pour la mettre à jamais hors d'état de nuire', Vattel, Droit des gens , I, p. 296.
100. Extracts from Vattel's Law of Nations', in W&s (Boston), IV, p. 471.
101. E.g. to Richard Burke (n. 56 above);
102. to Grenville, 18 Aug. 1792, Corr., VII, p. 176.
103. The section ii, iv, §53 is headed 'Droit de tous les peuples contre une nation malfaisante.' Vattel, Droit des gens, I, p. 296.
104. les Nations étrangères n'ont aucun droit de s'ingérer dans le Gouvernement d'un État indépendant, ibid., p. 300,
105. and section §54 headed: 'Aucune Nation n'est en droit de se mêler du Gouvernement d'une autre', p. 297.
106. Ibid., II, IV, §56
107. 'Comment il est permis d'entrer dans la querelle d'un Souverain avec son peuple', p. 298.
108. Quand un peuple prend avec raison les armes contre un oppresseur, il n'y a que justice & générosité à secourir de braves gens, qui défendent leur Liberté ... [en] Guerre Civile, les Puissances étranèes peuvent assister celui des deux partis qui leur paroît fondé en justice ... C'est violer le Droit des Gens que d'inviter à la révolte des sujets, qui obéissent actuellement à leur Souverain, quoiqu'ils se plaignent de son gouvernement', Vattel, Droit des gens, I, p. 298.
109. To be found in Vattel, Droit des gens, 11, pp. 42-4. David Armitage, in his 'Reason of state', rehearses this argument in favour of pre-emptive defensive wars, claiming that Vattel 'provided Burke with just the reason of state argument he needed'. But he does not show that Burke used this argument. Burke's case is consistently about internal intervention and is directed against the Ministry's balance of power policy; and even where, for tactical reasons, he limits the prominence of his own preferred policy, he never uses the pre-emptive argument, Indeed, Burke does not cite Vattel here at all. Armitage, 'Reason of state', p. 629; and again, p. 631, where he anticipates the argument of Regicide peace.
110. Burke to Loughborough, 13 June 1792, Corr., VII, p. 151.
111. The 'Brunswick Manifesto, 25 July', in Stewart, ed., Documentary survey, pp. 307, 311.
112. The importance of 'intermediate orders' was emphasized by all constitutional thinkers, most famously Montesquieu whom Burke greatly admired. On Montesquieu and Burke see still C. P. Courtney, Montesquieu and Burke (Oxford, 1963). Like many, Burke identified not only the Revolution settlement in Britain, but also the 'old order' in Europe - both an international order, and the 'ordered' governments which comprised it - as a government not simply monarchical, but of 'orders': a mixed monarchy in which the aristocratic and democratic elements were vital not only for the support, but for the limitation, of the monarchy.
113. See, e.g., Reflections, W&s, VIII, pp. 142, 212ff.
114. To Lord Loughborough, 27 May 1792, Corr., VII, p. 144.
115. To Richard Burke, 29 July 1792, Corr., VII, p. 160. He may have been briefing Richard for a public meeting on the Russian invasion of Poland.
116. See also to Lord Loughborough, 27 May, expressing his agreement with the duke of Portland that 'the liberty of the subject ... has no security, and can have none separated from the just prerogative of the Crown, and the importance of the intermediate orders', ibid., p. 144.
117. To Grenville, 18 Aug. 1792, Corr., VII, pp. 174-5.
118. Following the 'flight to Varennes' of the royal family, legal proceedings were put in train against the king. Burke to Grenville, 18 Aug. 1792, Corr., VII, p. 174-6.
119. Unknown to Burke, the ambassador, Lord Gower, had in fact already been recalled by a letter despatched on 17 Aug. Ibid. p. 178.
120. To Grenville, 18 Aug. 1792, Corr., VII, p. 176. It is possible, as David Armitage points out, that Burke was reminded of the treaties safeguarding the Protestant succession, by Vattel's use of 1688 as a case of a repressed people aided by a foreign prince. But it cannot be that Burke thought of 1688 (as opposed to the subsequent treaty guarantees for it) as exemplifying international law, for first, as Armitage points out, such a case might be thought to endorse a right of rule by conquest (which Whigs, and Burke, were careful to deny William), and secondly Burke goes out of his way - for a Whig it might be thought perversely so - to deny the support of any legal or theoretical justification for 1688 (e.g. Appeal, Works, III, p. 16: 'what never can be defined, the case of a revolution in government'), despite those available to him not only in international, but in conventional natural law arguments (see J. G. A. Pocock 'The Fourth English Civil War', in Lois Schwoerer, ed., The revolution of 1688, changing perspectives (Cambridge 1992), pp. 52-3). Indeed, this striking omission is a strong presumption against any scholastic 'natural law' interpretation of Burke.
121. This despite worries that in June, and again in autumn, domestic political agitation for reform on the French model was thought to be affecting perceptions of British power abroad: Mori, Pitt and the French Revolution, p. 114.
122. Gower was recalled on 17 August, partly for his own safety. Grenville did not reply until 6 September expressing gentle dissent from Burke whilst praising his motives. In spite of this diplomatic protest, and expressions of solicitude for Louis and his family, King George's reiteration of Britain's neutrality in regard to French internal affairs was sent and printed. Despatches of Earl Gower, ed. O. Browning (Cambridge, 1885), pp. 209-10;
123. Morning Chronicle, 31 Aug. 1792.
124. Both cited Corr., VII, p. 178.
125. The phrase 'extremely neutral' originated in the Foreign Office; see Blanning, Origins, p. 134,
126. citing William, Lord Auckland, Journal and correspondence (4 vols., London, 1861-2), II, p. 433
127. Grenville to Buckingham, 7 Nov. 1792, in Buckingham, ed., Courts and cabinets, II, pp. 221-5;
128. quoted in Ehrman, Transition, p. 205.
129. To Fitzwilliam 23 Oct. 1792, 'if... [this] country, should concur in an opinion, that all the States of Europe may be subverted by the prevalence of a new system of Power, ... I see nothing at all but irreparable ruin', Corr., vii, pp. 276-7. Burke identified not only the Revolution Settlement in Britain, but also the 'old order' in Europe - meaning by this both an international order, and the 'ordered' governments which comprised it - as a government not simply monarchical, but of 'orders': a mixed monarchy in which the aristocratic and democratic elements were vital not only for the support but for the limitation of the monarchy, moreover the British version of this - 'co-ordination'- insisted on the integration and not the mere balanced opposition of these powers.
130. See Corinne Comstock Weston and Janelle R. Greenberg, Subjects and sovereigns: the grand controversy over legal sovereignty in Stuart England (Cambridge, 1981).
131. To Richard Burke, 17 Oct. 1792, Corr., VII, pp. 272-3.
132. Banning, Origins, pp. 136-7.
133. The two Decrees are to be found in translation in Stewart ed., Documentary survey, p. 381.
134. The cited speech is that of 26 Nov. Blanning, Origins, p. 137,
135. quoting Lefebvre, p. 274.
136. Lefebvre comments: This 'instituted the dictatorship of revolutionary minorities under the protection of French bayonets and undertook to secure the fortunes of other peoples, without consulting them, at their expense': G. Lef'ebvre The French Revolution, trans. E. Evanson and J. H. Stewart (2 vols., New York, 1950, i, p. 277.
137. Burke wrote a 'Preface' for a translation, by his cousin William, of Brissot's 1793 'Address ... on the circumstances of the National Convention', in which he refers to Malet du Pin's citation of Brissot's speeches of autumn 1792, including the quotation: 'We must set free to the four comers of Europe in that alone is our safety.' Preface to Brissot's address [1794], W&s, viii, p. 519.
138. Interestingly, Robespierre attacked the decree, claiming 'liberty can never be founded by the use of foreign force'. George Michon, Robespierre et la guerre rivolutionaire (Paris, 1937), p. 127,
139. cited Blanning, Origins, p. 138. Nine titles dealing with France derive from this period. The only other one published in Burke's lifetime was the Letter to a member of the National Assembly (1790 (I follow the new W&s in counting the Appeal as essentially a work on the British constitution, although tactically it belongs to Burke's campaign to generate an interventionist war.)
140. Grenville to Chauvelin, 31 Dec. 1792, cited O. Browning, 'England and France in 1793', Fortnightly Review, 33 (1883) p. 266.
141. Dated Bath, 5 Nov. 1792.
142. Burke to Fitzwilliam, 29 Nov. 1792
143. 'I talked to him [Lord Camden] a great deal about the internal state of things. He spoke with a great deal of apparent openness.' Unsurprisingly, however, given that Camden was about to resign, Burke noted: 'He showed no desire of having it communicated to his colleagues in Office', Corr., VII, pp. 309-11.
144. Windham to Burke, 14 Nov. 1792, requesting a copy, Corr., VIII, p. 288.
145. Loughborough had been offered the seals on 18 November, but Portland obstructed the appointment. O'Gorman, Whig party, pp. 108-9. Burke was probably also unaware of Grenville's hopes that the peace could yet hold. Even following the execution of the king in January, Grenville wrote to Auckland to follow up a suggestion that the latter and Dumouriez should meet to discuss how peace could be preserved. Even following the execution of the king in January, Grenville wrote to Auckland to follow up a suggestion that the latter and Dumouriez should meet to discuss how peace could be preserved. Hutt, Chouannerie, I, p. 102.
146. Grenville's letter to Chauvelin focused on essentially four points, two of which might be said congenial to Burke's view. They were that Chauvelin could not be recognized as an envoy, secondly that correspondence between the National Convention and British radicals constituted subversive interference in Britain's internal affairs. On the other hand the objection to the unilateral opening of the Scheldt and the design of France 'to make herself sovereign of the Low Countries' were much more conventional worries. Grenville to Chauvelin, 31 Dec. 1792, Parl. hist., XXX, cc. 253-6. On the government's motivation for accepting the move to war, Blanning concludes 'However unoriginal, the conventional view that it was concern for the Low Countries which turned British policy to active resistance to the Revolution must be confirmed', Origins, p. 158
147. Heads for consideration on the present state of affairs, W&s, VIII, p. 392.
148. In the Brunswick Manifesto of 25 July 1792, issued by the duke of Brunswick, commander of the allied armies, on behalf of the emperor and king of Prussia explaining 'the motives and intentions that guide them', Stewart, ed., Documentary survey, p. 307.
149. As in letters over the summer, Burke then cites historical cases where intervention had been carried out by Catholic and Protestant monarchs to aid co-religionist constituent elements in other states, 'they intervened to help a party' and avoided giving the appearance of 'a hostile invasion'. Heads for consideration, W&s, VIII, p. 392.
150. Ibid., pp. 392-3.
151. Ibid., pp. 392-5.
152. Appeal, Works, III, p. 82.
153. Abbé Sieyes, Qu'est ce que le tiers état?, ed. R. Zapperi (Geneva, 1970), p. 197.
154. On Sieyes see Murray Forsyth, Reason and revolution: the political thought of the Abbé Sieyes (Leicester, 1987) esp. ch. 3, §3: 'The nation as the third estate'.
155. WWM, Burke papers 10/123, wrapped in a paper entitled, 'Sketch of declaration by the emigrants' (in EB's hand).
156. Heads for consideration, W&s, VIII, p. 395.
157. First letter on a regicide peace, W&s, IX, pp. 252-3.
158. Ibid., p. 393.
159. Public law' does not yet, as it was to in Regicide peace, refer specifically to shared Roman law, it refers simply to contemporary constitutional and international legal practice. Cf. the reference to the 'Public Law of Europe' recognizing only the monarchical character of France in Remarks on the policy of the allies, W&s, VIII, p. 474, which cannot there mean Roman law.
160. To Whitworth, 29 Dec. 1792, copy, BL Add. MS 34,446 (fos. 292v-293), cited by Hutt, Chouannerie, I, p. 107.
161. Burke to Loughborough, 27 Jan. 1793, Corr., VIII, p. 344.
162. Conservative whigs met on 10 Feb. and declared their separation from Fox. Somehow Portland managed not to construe this as a split in the party. O'Gorman, Whig party, p. 119.
163. Edmund Burke et al., to the Whig Club, 28 Feb. 1793, Corr., VII, p. 353.
164. Richard's decision was to contribute to Fitzwilliam's denying him a seat in parliament. See Fitzwilliam to Richard Burke, 8 Aug. 1793, Corr. , VII, p. 394.
165. Mori, Pitt and the French Revolution, pp. 159-60;
166. E. V. Macleod, A war of ideas (Aldershot, 1999), p. 51.
167. Diversity was to re-emerge again later, ibid., p. 47. Dundas remained pragmatic throughout. As a result of her topical approach Macleod tends to run together attitudinal evidence from different phases of the 'War'.
168. Ibid., p. 51.
169. C. C. O'Brien, The great melody (London, 1992), pp. 490, 495-6.
170. Ehrman, Transition, p. 582.
171. See e.g. Dundas to Burke, 13 Oct. 1793, Corr., VII, pp. 449-50.
172. That of William Miles, policy adviser to Pitt. C. P. Miles, ed., Correspondence of William Augustus Miles on the French Revolution, 1789-1817 (2 vols., London, 1890), II, p. 42,
173. cited Corr., VII, p. 348.
174. On Miles see H. V. Evans, 'William Pitt, William Miles and the French Revolution', Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, 43 (1970), pp. 190-213.
175. The date given, 13 Jan., however, is problematic since there is a letter from Burke at Beaconsfield to the landscape gardener, Humphry Repton, bearing that date (Corr., VII, p.. 330). I am grateful to Michael Duffy for pointing this out.
176. To Portland, 1 Aug. 1793, 'our war is not a war of ambition, but a war of principle', Corr., vii, p. 381;
177. to Lieutenant General Edward, Count Dalton, 6 Aug. 1793, 'All is involved with the principle ... of the French Revolution ... we are at war with that principle and that example and not with an ordinary power ... Nothing ... can be done, but by completely counteracting those crude systems which mankind has been surfeited, and by putting everything on its old foundation', Corr., vii, p.. 384;
178. to comte de Mercy-Argenteau, c. 6 Aug. 1793, Burke repeats in paraphrase or verbatim, much of the previous letter, and goes on: 'The present combination is not at War with France but with Jacobinism ... We are at war with a principle, an example, [with] which ... there is not territorial limits ... It must be extirpated in its place of origin, or it will not be confined to that place', Corr., vii, p. 387.
179. 'There is no power constituted in France that could treat', Parl. hist., XXX, c. 438, 18 Feb. 1793.
180. To Windham, 18 Aug. 1793: 'France is strong at arms length. She is, I am convinced, weakness itself if you can get to grapple with her internally. If you keep on the frontier ... she may ... make another frontier.' A defensive war against France was 'the most absurd of all imaginations', Corr., VII, p. 413.
181. To Elliot, 22 Sept. 1793, Corr., VII, pp. 434-5. Burke was mistaken, or thinking wishfully: Toulon's invitation to Hood declared its support for the monarchy of 1971.
182. Ehrman, Transition, p. 309. The declaration was eventually published in the Annual register for 1793.
183. Observations on the conduct of the minority, W&s, VIII, pp. 451-2.
184. See Burke's letter to Portland, accompanying Observations, in which he again protests against 'the delusion, ... [that] this Jacobin contest at home [is] an ordinary party squabble about place or Patronage; and to regard this Jacobin War abroad as a common War about Trade, or Territorial Boundaries; or about a political Balance of power among Rival or jealous States', Corr., VII, p. 438,
185. and Portland to Burke, 10 Oct. 1793, ibid., p. 446.
186. Mitchell, Charles James Fox, pp. 224-5.
187. 'I have written something to the ministers and I have twice seen them and spoken my sentiments very freely and very fully. I think we do not disagree in any principle nor in any Measure', Burke to Windham, 24 Oct. 1793, Corr., VII, p. 461.
188. The 'Grenville Declaration', 29 Oct. 1793, reprinted in Parl. hist. , XXX (1794), cc. 1057ff.
189. The commitment was to 'monarchy', not a particular version of it. To Burke, the re-admission of the émigrés was crucial, to Pitt, an irrelevance, or worse. See Mitchell, W&s, viii, pp. 49-51.
190. Burke still had reservations and stressed the importance of getting any justification right because 'it will fix a principle for the present war', Burke to Dundas, 27 Oct. 1793, Corr., VII, p. 465.
191. Windham to Burke, 7 Nov. 1793, Corr., VII, p. 479.
192. To Sir Gilbert Elliot, 22 Sept. 1793, Corr., VII, p. 432 (my emphasis).
193. Remarks, W&s, VIII, p. 497.
194. Ibid., P. 474.
195. Ibid., p. 457.
196. Repeated in Thoughts on French affairs: 'the political dogma [of] ... the New French System is ... that the majority told, by die head, of the taxable people in every country, is the perpetual, natural, unceasing, indefeasible sovereign; ... that all others are tyranny and usurpation', W&s, VIII, p. 344.
197. Remarks, W&s, VIII. pp. 457-8.
198. 'In all our ideas of Treaties we do not regard them as what they are, the two leading orders of the Kingdom', ibid., p. 455.
199. Letter to William Elliot, 2 May 1795: 'by this ... true republican spirit, paradoxical as it may appear, monarchies alone can be rescued from the imbecility of courts and the madness of the crowd ... Such a republican spirit. ... the heroes and patriots of old ... would have paramount to all constitutions; they would not suffer Monarchs or Senates or popular assemblies under pretences of dignity or authority, or freedom, to shake off those moral riders which reason has appointed', W&s, IX, p. 42;
200. and see above pp. 14, 19.
201. Remarks, VIII, pp. 459-60.
202. Dundas to Burke, 29 Oct. 1793, Corr., VII, p. 468.
203. The British commissioners in occupied Toulon were instructed to seek restoration of the hereditary monarchy under 'just limitations and regulations', P. Cottin, Toulon et les Anglais en 1793 (Paris, 1898), pp. 422-3, cited in Corr., VII, p. 477n.
204. Remarks, W&s, VIII, p. 453;
205. to Dundas, 27 Oct. 1793, Corr., VII, p. 466.
206. To Windham, 25 Nov. 1793, Corr., VII, p. 490;
207. to Buckingham, 1 Dec. 1793, ibid., VII, p. 498.
208. 'The commitment to monarchy, hardening by stages since the autumn of 1793, reached a point in the summer of 1795 which might have seemed binding', Ehrman, Transition, p. 599.???
209. Something of the slackening pace of Burke's activity can be gained from his Correspondence which occupies 326 pages for 1792, 180 pages in 1793 and 174 pages in 1794.
210. Ehrman, Transition, pp. 592-3;
211. king's speech, 27 June 1795.
212. Pitt to Portland, 20 Sept. 1795, cited Ehrman, Transition, p. 592.
213. Grenville to Whitworth, Oct. 1795;
214. Public Record Office, FO 65/3,2, cited Ehrman, Transition, p. 589.
215. Ehrman, Transition, p. 595;
216. king's speech, 29 Oct 1795.
217. William Eden, Baron Auckland, Some remarks on the apparent circumstances of the war in the fourth week of October 1795 (London, 1795),
218. Auckland to Burke, 28 Oct. 1795, Corr., VIII, p. 333;
219. on Auckland's showing it to Pitt, ibid., p. 335.
220. Auckland, ambassador at The Hague, had, since 1794, been advising ministers to a peace which left France's internal affairs to herself W&s, IX, Intro., p. 20.
221. To Auckland, 30 Oct. 1795, Corr., VIII, p. 335.
222. To Pitt, [7] Nov. 1795, Corr., VIII, p. 337. The paper was clearly an early version of the posthumously published Thoughts and details on scarcity. The bad harvest of 1795 threatened severe deprivation. The redistributive theories of Paine's Agrarian justice and Thelwall's Rights of nature against the usurpations of establishments both belong to this context.
223. To Windham, 17 Nov. 1795, Corr., VIII, p. 343, 'there is no Rank or class, into which the Evil of Jacobinism has not penetrated; ... With the French republic at your door - your constitution CANNOT exist.'
224. To Windham, 25 Nov. 1795 , Corr., VIII, p. 345.
225. To Fitzwilliam, 9, 16 Dec. 1795, Corr., VIII, pp. 357-8;
226. and Fitzwilliam to Burke, 17 Dec. 1795, ibid., pp. 361-2;
227. Fitzwilliam at Parl. hist., XXXII, c. 607: 'the present war was of a value different from all common wars ... It was expressly undertaken to ... effect the destruction of the abominable system that prevailed in that country ... [the proposal was] an entire departure from the principle on which the war had been commenced.' Fitzwilliam persisted in pressing Burke's line throughout the winter. To Burke, 10 Jan. 1796, Corr., VIII, p. 369;
228. 18 Feb. 1796, ibid., p. 386.
229. To Fitzwilliam, 7 Jan. 1796, Corr., VIII, p. 367.
230. This chronologically first letter was set aside, unpublished by Burke. Two letters on a regicide peace was published in October 1796 having been almost a year in preparation. A third Letter unfinished at his death, was completed from notes and published in 1797 by his executors Walter King and French Laurence. The uncompleted, chronologically first letter was added as the Fourth letter in the 1812 edition of Burke's Works. See W&s, IX, pp. 44, 187.
231. Windham to Burke, 17 Jan. 1796, Corr., VIII, p. 375.
232. To Fitzwilliam, 17 Jan. 1796, Corr., VIII, p. 374.
233. To Windham, 19 Jan. 1796, Corr., VIII, p.. 379:
234. 'I send you some sheets for Woodford (John Woodford, chief clerk to the foreign dept of the war office).'To La Bintanaye, 7 Mar. 1796, Corr. , VIII, pp. 408-9.
235. La Bintanaye had by then had such a text long enough to consult about translation and write back to Burke on the subject, to the latter's evident consternation. On Burke's method of working with proofs, Todd, A bibliography, p. 144.
236. To French Laurence, 11 Mar. 1796, Corr., VIII, p. 413.
237. To John Bowles (c. 12 Mar. 1796), ibid., p.415.
238. Oracle, 23 Jan., 16 Feb. 1796, cited in ibid., p.. 379.
239. French Laurence to Burke, ibid., p. 418.
240. Oracle, 23 Jan., 16 Feb. 1796.
241. To French Laurence, 26 Mar. 1796, Corr., VIII, p. 447.
242. Ehrman, Transition, p. 607.
243. Pitt to Grenville, 23 June 1796, Dropmore, III, p. 214.
244. Burke to Windham, 7 June 1796;
245. to French Laurence, 11 June 1796;
246. Corr., IX, pp. 47, 48.
247. To Windham, 11 Sept. 1796, ibid., p. 84;
248. on the peace initiative and the terms see Ehrman, Transition, pp. 628-30.
249. Fitzwilliam to Burke, 17 Sept. 1796, Sheffield MS, cited Corr., IX, p. 88;
250. Burke to Fitzwilliam, 23, 26, Sept. 1796, Corr., IX, pp. 88, 90.
251. Fitzwifliam seems to have delivered his own speech on 6 Oct., and entered a protest at the address of thanks to the king's speech outlining the peace policy (Parl. hist., XXXII, cc. 1179, 1185-9) on which Burke congratulates him, linking it with the publication of Two letters, Burke to Fitzwilliam, 30 Oct. 1796, Corr., IX, pp. 101-2.
252. The distinction between intention in writing and in publishing can be crucial to the import of a work. Peter Laslett's demonstration that Locke wrote Two treatises in the context of the Exclusion Crisis makes the intention to be ascribed to the writing of that work far more radical than any that could be ascribed to its publication in defence of the revolution of 1688. For Hobbes, too, publishing a de facto political theory in 1651 gave it - as he realized - a far different meaning than doing so under the monarchy of 1642.
253. Owen's version was Thoughts on the Prospect of a regicide peace, in a series of letters; his claims are made in his 'Preface'. Owen had jointly published the Letter to a noble Lord with the Rivington brothers, who had become Burke's printers since the ill-health of the surviving Dodsley brother. Owen, who later claimed Burke had made a gift to him of both the Letter to a noble Lord and Two letters, was evidently no longer connected with Rivington. He was possibly already identified by Burke as bankrupt, and was subsequently declared so. Letter to Walter King, 14 May 1796, p. II;
254. Corr., IX p. 96n.
255. French Laurence to Burke, 13, 14 Oct. 1796, ibid., pp. 94-5.
256. Tyranny of an individual or a party is 'a thing to be lamented: but this notwithstanding, the body of the commonwealth may remain in all its integrity and be perfectly sound in its composition. The present case is different. It is not a revolution in government. It is not the victory of party over party. It is a destruction and decomposition ofthe whole society; which can never be made of right by any faction however powerful', First letter, W&s, IX, p. 253.
257. Where king driven from his country allies are not obliged to support an eternal War in his favour. After having made ineffectual Efforts to restore him they must at length give peace to their people, & come to an accommodation with the usurper & for that purpose treat with him as with a lawful sovereign', WWM, Burke papers, 10/27.
258. The pioneering work for the earlier part of the century has been done by Laurence Klein and Nicolas Phillipson on whose work I have draw in following through its fortunes to the later part of the century in my 'From virtue to politeness', in Martin van Gelderen and Quentin Skinner, eds., Republicanism: a shared European heritage (2 Vols., Cambridge, 2002), 11, pp. 85-106.
259. For a recent overview (which focuses more on politeness as an interpretative category than an eighteenth-century discourse) see Laurence Klein's review article 'Politeness in the interpretation of the British eighteenth century', Historical Journal, 45 (2002), pp. 864-98. Burke's undergraduate newspaper The Reformer belongs to the cultivation-of-politeness genre pioneered by the Spectator.
260. Burke, Reflections, W&s, VIII, p. 142.
261. Ibid., pp. 160-1.
262. Ibid., p. 137.
263. Ibid., pp. 128, 131.
264. The 'politeness' appropriate for revolutionaries in the sense of forms of address, procedure, and dignity was a much-contested issue. See P. France, Politeness and its discontents (Cambridge, 1992), ch. 8.
265. First letter, W&s, IX, p. 242.
266. J. G. A. Pocock, 'The political economy of Burke's analysis of the French revolution', Historical Journal, 25 (1982), pp. 331-49,
267. reprinted in J. G. A. Pocock, Virtue, commerce and history (Cambridge, 1985), pp. 193-212;
268. but see my 'Burke and the religious sources of sceptical conservatism', in J. van der Zande and R. H. Popkin, eds., The skeptical tradition around 1800 (Dordrecht, 1998), pp. 235-59.
269. 'Reasons against the French war of 1793', Monthly Review, 40, p. 435.
270. Reprinted in Miscellaneous works of the Rt. Hon. Sir, James Mackintosh (London, 1851) p. 626.
271. Burke possessed a translation of Domat (Jean Domat, Corps universel diplomatique du droit des gens (Amsterdam and The Hague, 1726-31))
272. listed as 'Lot 220 Domat's Civil Law, by Strahan, 2 vol., (1737)', Catalogue of the libraries of the late Rt. Hon. Edmund Burke, and a near relative, Evan's Catalogues, vol. 49 (London, 1833).
273. For Burke's claim that they repudiated this: Second letter on a regicide peace, W&S, IX, pp. 277ff.
274. Etiquette ... had its original application in those ceremonial and formal observances practised at Courts ... to preserve the sovereign power from the rude intrusion of licentious familiarity as well as to preserve Majesty itself from a disposition to consult it's case at the expence of it's dignity', Third letter, W&s, IX, p. 334.
275. First letter, p. 253.
276. This is a fairly breathtaking claim at the end of 200 years of almost continuous European war - which Burke himself had catalogued, however ambiguously, in his Vindication of natural society.
277. First letter, W&s, IX, pp. 248-9.
278. Cicero, De legibus, Book 1, vii, §23, De republica, de legibus, ed. and trans. C. W. Keyes (Cambridge, MA, and London, 1971), pp. 321-2.
279. Burke possessed several copies; e.g. Cicero opera (11 vols., L. Bat. [Leyden], 1692), Catalogue of the library, Lot 87/4.
280. First letter, W&s, IX, p. 247.
281. Gibbon, for example, allows that philosophers (as opposed to patriots) may 'consider Europe as one great republic, whose various inhabitants have attained almost the same level of politeness and cultivation ... [whose] system of arts, and laws and manners, ... so advantageously distinguish, above the rest of mankind, the Europeans and their colonies'. 'General observations', Gibbon, Decline and fall, ed. David Womersly (3 vols., Harmondsworth, 1994), 11 (App. IX, ch. 38), p. 511.
282. Gibbon - and Burke - could have had in mind, amongst many others, Charles, Abbé de Saint-Pierre, d. 1743, whose plan for perpetual peace included both observations on the cultural integrity of Europe, and mutual guarantees to intervene for the perpetuation of existing regimes. Saint-Pierre, Project on Perpetual Peace (1712-13) in Basic texts in international relations, ed. Evan Luard (London, 1992), pp. 411-14.
283. First letter, W&s, IX, p. 249.
284. This was the origin of that bizarre legal division comprising the otherwise unlikely combination of jurisdictions in Admiralty, Divorce, and Probate. Such legal miscegenation was endorsed by monarchs, thus King James I in 1610: 'I doe greatly esteem the Civil Law, the profession thereof serving more for general learning, and being most necessary for matters of Treatie with all forreigne Nations ... for it is in a manner Lex Gentium, and maintaineth intercourse with all forreign Nations: but I only allow it to have course here according to those limits of Jurisdiction, which the Common Law it selfe doth allow it.' Cited in Wijffels, 'Ius gentium', p. 119.
285. First letter, W&S, IX, p. 251,
286. see also p. 247 -'it is with nations as with individuals'.
287. The phrase is also used by Vattel in introducing his application of modern (post-Grotian) natural law to the law of individual nations, as a way of establishing their integrity, not their susceptibility, to their neighbours. See, e.g., Vattel, Droit des gens, 1, 'Preliminaires', p. 3 .
288. See Peter Stein, A textbook of Roman law (3rd edn, Cambridge, 1963), pp. 724-8;
289. and R. W. League, Roman private law, ed. C. H. Ziegler (London, 1930), p. 306.
290. 'An opinion that it is a man's duty to take from me my goods, and to kill me if I resist him. An opinion that he has a right, at his will, to pull down the Government by which I am protected in that life and property, and to place it in the hands of the enemies of both. These it is very extraordinary to hear compared to the theological dogmas concerning grace and justification ... they did not preach vices or crimes. The parties disputed the best means of promoting virtue, religion and morals.' Second Letter, W&s, IX, p. 295. The pirate, Owen, was involved in what was probably the draft printing of an earlier version. Moreover, we know Burke was persuaded to tone down some of his claims in the final version, so there are reasons for believing the words to be Burke's: see no. 161, 162 above.
291. Mackintosh's Vindiciae gallicae (1791) was one of the less demotic, if also theoretically less consistent, responses to Reflections.
292. The Monthly Review, 21 (1796), in Miscellaneous works, p. 25.
293. 'The law of nature and of nations' [1799], in ibid., pp. 162, 165-6.
294. 'On the annexation of Genoa', in ibid., pp. 694, 695.