The introduction to this edition of Burke's speech on Conciliation with America is intended to supply the needs of those students who do not have access to a well-stocked library, or who, for any reason, are unable to do the collateral reading necessary for a complete understanding of the text. The sources from which information has been drawn in preparing this edition are mentioned under "Bibliography." The editor wishes to acknowledge indebtedness to many of the excellent older editions of the

In 1651 originated the policy which caused the American Revolution. That policy was one of taxation, indirect, it is true, but none the less taxation. The first Navigation Act required that colonial exports should be shipped to England in American or English vessels. This was followed by a long series of acts, regulating and restricting the American trade. Colonists were not allowed to exchange certain articles without paying duties thereon, and custom houses were established and officers appoin

There is nothing unusual in Burke's early life. He was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1729. His father was a successful lawyer and a Protestant, his mother, a Catholic. At the age of twelve, he became a pupil of Abraham Shackleton, a Quaker, who had been teaching some fifteen years at Ballitore, a small town thirty miles from Dublin. In after years Burke was always pleased to speak of his old friend in the kindest way: "If I am anything," he declares, "it is the education I had there that has made

There is hardly a political tract or pamphlet of Burke's in which he does not state, in terms more or less clear, the fundamental principle in his theory of government. "Circumstances," he says in one place, "give, in reality, to every political principle, its distinguishing color and discriminating effect. The circumstances are what renders every civil and political scheme beneficial or obnoxious to mankind." At another time he exclaims: "This is the true touchstone of all theories which regard

It has become almost trite to speak of the breadth of Burke's sympathies. We should examine the statement, however, and understand its significance and see its justice. While he must always be regarded first as a statesman of one of the highest types, he had other interests than those directly suggested by his office, and in one of these, at least, he affords an interesting and profitable study. To the student of literature Burke's name must always suggest that of Johnson and Goldsmith. It was e

Coleridge . . . . . 1772-1834 Byron . . . . . . . 1788-1824 Shelley . . . . . . 1792-1822 Keats . . . . . . . 1795-1821 Scott . . . . . . . 1771-1832...

1. "Like Goldsmith, though in a different sphere, Burke belongs both to the old order and the new." Discuss that statement. 2. Burke and the Literary Club. (Boswell's Life of Johnson.) 3. Lives of Burke and Goldsmith. Contrast. 4. An interpretation of ten apothegms selected from the Speech on Conciliation. 5. A study of figures in the Speech on Conciliation. 6. A definition of the terms: "colloquialism" and "idiom" Instances of their use in the Speech on Conciliation....

2. Burke. John Morley. An Historical Study. 3. Burke. John Morley. Encyclopaedia Britannica. 4. History of the English People. Green. Vol. IV., pp 193-271. 5 History of Civilization in England. Buckle. Vol I, pp. 326-338 6. The American Revolution. Fiske. Vol. I, Chaps. I., II. 7. Life of Johnson. Boswell. (Use the Index)...

ON MOVING HIS RESOLUTIONS FOR CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES. HOUSE OF COMMONS, MARCH 22, 1775 I hope, Sir, that notwithstanding the austerity of the Chair, your good nature will incline you to some degree of indulgence towards human frailty. You will not think it unnatural that those who have an object depending, which strongly engages their hopes and fears, should be somewhat inclined to superstition. As I came into the House full of anxiety about the event of my motion, I found, to my infinit