I have ever observed, that the execution of one man fixes the attention and excites awe; the execution of multitudes dissipates and weakens the effect: but men reason themselves into disapprobation and disgust; they compute more as they feel less; and every severe act, which does not appear to be necessary, is sure to be offensive.

In selecting the criminals, a very different line ought to be followed, from that recommended by the champions of the protestant association. They recommend, that the offenders for plunder ought to be punished, and the offenders from principle spared. But the contrary rule ought to be followed. The ordinary executions, of which there are enough in conscience, are for the former species of delinquents; but such common plunderers would furnish no example in the present case, where the false or pretended principle of religion, which leads to crimes, is the very thing to be discouraged.

But the reason which ought to make these people objects of selection for punishment, confines the selection to very few. For we must consider, that the whole nation has been for a long time guilty of their crime. Toleration is a new virtue in any country. It is a late ripe fruit in the best climates. We ought to recollect the poison, which, under the name of antidotes against popery, and such like mountebank titles, has been circulated from our pulpits and from our presses, from the heads of the church of England, and the heads of the dissenters. These publications, by degrees, have tended to drive all religion from our own minds, and to fill them with nothing but a violent hatred of the religion of other people, and of course, with a hatred of their persons; and so, by a very natural progression, they have led men to the destruction of their goods and houses, and to attempts upon their

lives.

for

This delusion furnishes no reason for suffering that abominable spirit to be kept alive by inflammatory libels, or seditious assemblies, or government's yielding to it, in the smallest degree, any point of justice, equity, or sound policy. The king certainly ought not to give up any part of his subjects to the prejudices of another. So far from it, I am clearly of opinion, that on the late occasion, the cathoics ought to have been taken, more avowedly than they were, under the protection of govern ment, as the dissenters had been on a similar

occasion.

But, though we ought to protect against violence the bigotry of others, and to correct VOL. II.-25

our own too, if we have any left, we ought to reflect, that an offence, which in its cause is national, ought not in its effects to be vindicated on individuals, but with a very well-tempered severity.

For my own part, I think the fire is not extinguished; on the contrary, it seems to require the attention of government more than ever; but, as a part of any methodical plan for extinguishing this flame, really seems necessary that the execution of justice should be as steady and as cool as possible.

SOME ADDITIONAL REFLECTIONS ON THE EXECUTIONS.

THE great number of sufferers seems to arise from the misfortune incident to the variety of judicatures which have tried the crimes. It were well if the whole had been the business of one commission; for now every trial seems as if it were a separate business, and in that light, each offence is not punished with greater severity than single offences of the kind are commonly marked; but, in reality and fact, this unfortunate affair, though diversified in the multitude of overt acts, has been one and the same riot; and therefore the executions, so far as regards the general effect on the minds of men, will have a reference to the unity of the offence, and will appear to be much more severe than such a riot, atrocious as it was, can well justify in government. I pray that it may be recollected, that the chief delinquents have hitherto escaped, and very many of those who are fallen into the hands of justice, are a poor, thoughtless set of creatures, very little aware of the nature of their offence. None of the listmakers, the assemblers of the mob, the directors and arrangers, have been convicted. The preachers of mischief remain safe, and are wicked enough not to feel for their deluded disciples; no, not at all.

I would not plead the ignorance of the law in any, even the most ignorant, as a justification; but I am sure, that when the question is of mercy, it is a very great and powerful argument. I have all the reason in the world to believe, that they did not know their offence was capital.

There is one argument, which I beg may not be considered as brought for any invidious purpose, or meant as imputing blame any where, but which, I think, with candid and considerate men, will have much weight. The unfortunate delinquents were perhaps much

encouraged by some remissness on the part of government itself. The absolute and entire impunity attending the same offence in Edinburgh, which was over and over again urged as an example and encouragement to these unfortunate people, might be a means of deluding them. Perhaps, too, a languor in the beginning of the riots here (which suffered the leaders to proceed until very many, as it were, by the contagion of a sort of fashion, were carried to these excesses) might make these people think that there was something in the case which induced government to wink at the irregularity of the proceedings.

The conduct and condition of the lord mayor ought, in my opinion, to be considered. His answers to Lord Beauchamp, to Mr. Malo, and to Mr. Langdale, make him appear rather an accomplice in the crimes than guilty of negligence as a magistrate. Such an example set to the mob by the first magistrate of the city, tends greatly to palliate their offence.

The license and complete impunity too of the publications, which, from the beginning, instigated the people to such actions, and, in the midst of trials and executions, still continues, does in a great degree render these creatures an object of compassion. In the Public Advertiser of this morning, there are two or three paragraphs strongly recommending such outrages; and stimulating the people to violence against the houses and persons of Roman catholics, and even against the chapels of the foreign ministers.

I would not go so far as to adopt the maxim, quicquid multis peccatur, inultum; but, certainly, offences committed by vast multitudes, are somewhat palliated in the individuals; who,

when so many escape, are always looked upon rather as unlucky than criminal. All our loose ideas of justice, as it affects any individual, have in them something of comparison to the situation of others; and no systematic reasoning can wholly free us from such impressions.

Phil. de Comines says, our English civil wars were less destructive than others; because the cry of the conqueror always was, "Spare the common people." This principle of war should be at least as prevalent in the execution of justice. The appetite of justice is easily satisfied, and it is best nourished with the least possible blood. We may too recollect, that between capital punishment and total impunity there are many stages.

On the whole, every circumstance of mercy and of comparative justice does, in my opinion, plead in favour of such low, untaught, or illtaught wretches. But, above all, the policy of government is deeply interested, that the pu nishments should appear one solemn deliberate act, aimed not at random, and at particular offences, but done with a relation to the general spirit of the tumults; and they ought to be nothing more than what is sufficient to mark and discountenance that spirit.

CIRCUMSTANCES FOR MERCY.

Not being principal.

Probable want of early and deliberative purposes.

Youth where the highest malice does not Sex appear.

Intoxication and levity, or mere wantonness of any kind.

DEAR SIR,

I SHOULD have been punctual in sending you the sketch I promised of my old African code, if some friends from London had not come in upon me last Saturday, and engaged me till noon this day; I send this packet by one of them, who is still here. If what I send be, as under present circumstances it must be, imperfect, you will excuse it, as being done near twelve years ago. About four years since I made an abstract of it; upon which cannot at present lay my hands; but I hope the marginal heads will in some measure supply it. If the African trade could be considered with regard to itself only, and as a single object, I should think the utter abolition to be, on the whole, more advisable than any scheme of regulation and reform. Rather than suffer it to continue as it is, I heartily wish it at an end. What has been lately done has been done by a popular spirit, which seldom calls for, and indeed very rarely relishes a system made up of a great variety of parts, and which is to operate its effect in a great length of time. The people like short methods; the consequences of which they sometimes have reason to repent of. Abolition is but a single act. Το prove the nature of the trade, and to expose it properly, required, indeed, a vast collection of materials, which have been laboriously collected, and compiled with great judgment. It required also much perseverance and address to excite the spirit, which has been excited without doors, and which has carried it through. The greatest eloquence ever displayed in the house has been employed to second the efforts which have been made abroad. All this, how ever, leads but to one single resolve. When this was done, all was done. I speak of absolute and immediate abolition, the point which the first motions went to, and which is in effect still pressed; though in this session, according to order, it cannot take effect. A remote, and a gradual abolition, though they may

be connected, are not the same thing. The idea of the house seems to me, if I rightly comprehended it, that the two things are to be combined; that is to say, that the trade is gradually to decline, and to cease entirely at a determinate period. To make the abolition gradual, the regulations must operate as a strong discouragement. But it is much to be feared that a trade continued and discouraged, and with a sentence of death passed upon it, will perpetuate much ill blood between those who struggle for the abolition, and those who contend for an effectual continuance.

At the time when I formed the plan, which I have the honour to transmit to you, an abolition of the slave trade would have appeared a very chimerical project. My plan, therefore, supposes the continued existence of that commerce. Taking for my basis that I had an incurable evil to deal with, I cast about how I should make it as small an evil as possible, and draw out of it some collateral good.

In turning the matter over in my mind, at that time, and since, I never was able to consider the African trade upon a ground disconnected with the employment of negroes in the West Indies, and distinct from their condition in the plantations whereon they serve. I conceived that the true origin of the trade was not in the place it was begun at, but at the place of its final destination. I therefore was, and I still am of opinion, that the whole work ought to be taken up together; and that a gradual abolition of slavery, in the West Indies, ought to go hand in hand with any thing, which should be done with regard to its supply from the coast of Africa. I could not trust a cessation of the demand for this supply to the mere operation of any abstract principle, (such as, that if their supply was cut off, the planters would encourage and produce an effectual population,) knowing that nothing can be more uncertain than the operation of general principles, if they are not embodied in specific

regulations. I am very apprehensive, that so long as the slavery continues, some means for its supply will be found. If so, I am persuaded, that it is better to allow the evil, in order to correct it, than by endeavouring to forbid what we cannot be able wholly to prevent, to .eave it under an illegal, and therefore an unreformed existence. It is not that my plan does not lead to the extinction of the slave trade; but it is through a very slow progress, the chief effect of which is to be operated in our own plantations, by rendering, in a length of time, all foreign supply unnecessary. It was my wish, whilst the slavery continued, and the consequent commerce, to take such measures as to civilize the coast of Africa by the trade which now renders it more barbarous; and to lead by degrees to a more reputable, and, possibly, a more profitable connexion with it than we maintain at present.

I am sure that you will consider, as a mark of my confidence in your and Mr. Pitt's honour and generosity, that I venture to put into your hands a scheme, composed of many and intricate combinations, without a full explanatory preface, or any attendant notes, to point out the principles, upon which I proceeded, in every regulation which I have proposed towards the civilization and gradual manumission of negroes in the two hemispheres. I confess, I trust infinitely more (according to the sound principles of those who ever have at any time meliorated the state of mankind) to the effect and influence of religion, than to all the rest of the regulations put together.

Whenever, in my proposed reformation, we take our point of departure from a state of slavery, we must precede the donation of freedom by disposing the minds of the objects to a disposition to receive it without danger to themselves or to us. The process of bringing free savages to order and civilization is very different. When a state of slavery is that upon which we are to work, the very means which lead to liberty must partake of compulsion. The minds of men, being crippled with that restraint, can do nothing for themselves; every thing must be done for them.

The regulations can owe little to consent. Every thing must be the creature of power. Hence it is, that regulations must be multiplied; particularly as you have two parties to deal with. The planter you must at once restrain and support; and you must controul, at the same time that you ease the servant. This necessarily makes the work a matter of care, labour, and expense. It becomes in its

nature complex. But I think neither the object impracticable, nor the expense intolerable; and I am fully convinced that the cause of humanity would be far more benefited by the continuance of the trade and servitude, regulated and reformed, than by the total destruction of both, or either. What I propose, however, is but a beginning of a course of measures, which an experience of the effects of the evil and the reform, will enable the legislature hereafter to supply and correct.

I need not observe to you, that the forms are often neglected, penalties not provided, &c. &c. &c. But all this is merely mechanical, and what a couple of days' application would set to rights.

I have seen what has been done by the West Indian assemblies. It is arrant trifling. They have done little; and what they have done is good for nothing; for it is totally destitute of an executory principle. This is the point to which I have applied my whole diligence. It is easy enough to say what shall be done :-to cause it to be done-Hic labor, hoc opus.

I ought not to apologize for letting this scheme lie beyond the period of the Horatian keeping-I ought much more to entreat an excuse for producing it now. Its whole value (if it has any) is the coherence and mutua. dependency of parts in the scheme; separately they can be of little or no use.

I have the honour to be, with very great respect and regard, Dear sir,

Your most faithful,

and obedient humble servant,
EDMUND BURKE.

Beaconsfield,
Easter-Monday Night, 1792.

SKETCH OF THE NEGRO CODE.

THIS Constitution consists of four principal members.

I. The rules for qualifying a ship for the African trade.

II. The mode of carrying on the trade upon the coast of Africa, which includes a plan for introducing civilization in that part of the world. III. What is to be observed from the time of shipping negroes to the sale in the West India islands.

IV. The regulations relative to the state and condition of slaves in the West Indies, their manumission, &c.