The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. VI

ɼThe Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. VI

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund
Burke, Vol. VI. (of 12), by Edmund Burke This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. VI. (of 12)
Author: Edmund Burke
Release Date: April 24, 2005 [EBook #15702]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BURKE VOL 6 ***

Produced by Paul Murray, Susan Skinner and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team from images generously made available by the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica) at http://gallica.bnf.fr

THE WORKS
OF
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
EDMUND BURKE
IN TWELVE VOLUMES
VOLUME THE SIXTH
[Illustration: Burke Coat of Arms.]
LONDON JOHN C. NIMMO 14, KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND, W.C. MDCCCLXXXVII

CONTENTS OF VOL. VI.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND POSTHUMOUS VOLUME, IN A LETTER TO THE RIGHT HON. WILLIAM ELLIOT v
FOURTH LETTER ON THE PROPOSALS FOR PEACE WITH THE REGICIDE DIRECTORY OF FRANCE; WITH THE PRELIMINARY CORRESPONDENCE 1
LETTER TO THE EMPRESS OF RUSSIA, November 1, 1791 113
LETTER TO SIR CHARLES BINGHAM, BART., ON THE IRISH ABSENTEE TAX, October 30, 1773 121
LETTER, TO THE HON. CHARLES JAMES FOX, ON THE AMERICAN WAR, October 8, 1777 135
LETTER TO THE MARQUIS OF ROCKINGHAM, WITH ADDRESSES TO THE KING, AND THE BRITISH COLONISTS IN NORTH AMERICA, IN RELATION TO THE MEASURES OF GOVERNMENT IN THE AMERICAN CONTEST, AND A PROPOSED SECESSION OF THE OPPOSITION FROM PARLIAMENT, January, 1777 149
LETTER TO THE RIGHT HON. EDMUND S. PERRY, IN RELATION TO A BILL FOR THE RELIEF OF THE ROMAN CATHOLICS OF IRELAND, July 18, 1778 197
TWO LETTERS TO THOMAS BURGH, ESQ., AND JOHN MERLOTT, ESQ., IN VINDICATION OF HIS PARLIAMENTARY CONDUCT RELATIVE TO THE AFFAIRS OF IRELAND, 1780 207
LETTERS AND REFLECTIONS ON THE EXECUTIONS OF THE RIOTERS IN 1780 239
LETTER TO THE RIGHT HON. HENRY DUNDAS: WITH THE SKETCH OF A NEGRO CODE, 1792 255
LETTER TO THE CHAIRMAN OF THE BUCKINGHAMSHIRE MEETING, HELD AT AYLESBURY, APRIL 13, 1780, ON THE SUBJECT OF PARLIAMENTARY REFORM 291
FRAGMENTS OF A TRACT RELATIVE TO THE LAWS AGAINST POPERY IN IRELAND 299
LETTER TO WILLIAM SMITH, ESQ., ON THE SUBJECT OF CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION, January 29, 1795 361
SECOND LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE, ON THE CATHOLIC QUESTION, May 26, 1795 375
LETTER TO RICHARD BURKE, ESQ., ON PROTESTANT ASCENDENCY IN IRELAND, 1793 385
LETTER ON THE AFFAIRS OF IRELAND, 1797 413

PREFACE
TO THE SECOND POSTHUMOUS VOLUME,[1]
IN A LETTER TO
THE RIGHT HON. WILLIAM ELLIOT
My dear sir,--As some prefatory account of the materials which compose this second posthumous volume of the Works of Mr. Burke, and of the causes which have prevented its earlier appearance, will be expected from me, I hope I may be indulged in the inclination I feel to run over these matters in a letter to you, rather than in a formal address to the public.
Of the delay that has intervened since the publication of the former volume I shall first say a few words. Having undertaken, in conjunction with the late Dr. Laurence, to examine the manuscript papers of Mr. Burke, and to select and prepare for the press such of them as should be thought proper for publication, the difficulties attending our co?peration were soon experienced by us. The remoteness of our places of residence in summer, and our professional and other avocations in winter, opposed perpetual obstacles to the progress of our undertaking.
Soon after the publication of the fourth volume, I was rendered incapable of attending to any business by a severe and tedious illness. And it was not long after my recovery before the health of our invaluable friend began gradually to decline, and soon became unequal to the increasing labors of his profession and the discharge of his Parliamentary duties. At length we lost a man, of whom, as I shall have occasion to speak more particularly in another part of this undertaking, I will now content myself with saying, that in my humble opinion he merited, and certainly obtained with those best acquainted with his extensive learning and information, a considerable rank amongst the eminent persons who have adorned the age in which we have lived, and of whose services the public have been deprived by a premature death.
From these causes little progress had been made in our work when I was deprived of my coadjutor. But from that time you can testify of me that I have not been idle. You can bear witness to the confused state in which the materials that compose the present volume came into my hands. The difficulty of reading many of the manuscripts, obscured by innumerable erasures, corrections, interlineations, and marginal insertions, would perhaps have been insuperable to any person less