relations of man to man, and the relation of man to God, which relations are not matters of pact. On the contrary, the force of all the pacts which we enter into with any particular person, or number of persons, amongst mankind, depends upon these prior obligations,' and he proceeds to argue that the relations arising from marriage, from the filial relation, and from our membership of a given nature, have an inherent sanctity which we cannot abolish.

1

If

101. To appeal, then, to the natural right to equality of mankind, as declaring that the existing order should be made conducive to the interests of all, is a legitimate inference from the divine origin of society. To appeal to it in the sense of proposing to level existing distinctions, and disintegrate the divine order, is a palpable and most mischievous fallacy. we ask how from these general principles we are to descend to those intermediate propositions which may guide us in particular cases, how we are to justify any given order of things from the sanctity of the social order in general, and to distinguish between the divine law and the human corruption, Burke would admit or assert that we must appeal to experience. He would further assert that as yet there is no science of politics, and that the doctrines hitherto discoverable are fitted only for the amusement of speculative men.2 Are we not, then, thrown back upon that chaotic 'jumble' of merely empirical speculation which is the necessary result of an absence of speculative principle? If metaphysics are a Serbonian bog, if observation presents us with facts too complex to be reducible to definite laws, if theology can only tell us that some order is sacred but cannot tell us what order is sacred, whence are we to turn for guidance? To say the plain truth, no definite logical answer was accessible in the time of Burke, or is even now accessible. Every political system must be more or less of the empirical kind, and we must trust in great measure to guesswork, instead of steering our course by compass and calculation. And yet some principles emerge; and there is an immense value in the conception of the political order as presented by Burke, even when it has as yet led to no definitely formulated conclusions. He indicates the true method, if he does not bring out final results.

Burke, vi. 206, 'Appeal.'

2 Ib. viii. 79, 'Regicide Peace.'

102. One doctrine is specially characteristic. In one of his best pamphlets, the 'Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents,' Burke notices the alarming symptom that ⚫ rank and office, and all the solemn plausibilities of the world, have lost their reverence and effect.' How was the prestige thus shaken to be restored? The sacred phrase which he habitually opposes to the rights of man is Prescription. 'Prescription,' he says, in a speech on Parliamentary reform in 1782, 'is the most solid of all titles, not only to property, but what is to secure that property, to government.' 2 Prescription, he continues, is accompanied with another ground of authority in the constitution of the human mind, Presumption.'2 There is a presumption, that is, in favour of an established order; the nation is not a mere artificial aggregate of units; it has a corporate existence in time and space. The constitution is formed by the co-operation of ages and generations; and, far from being the product of conscious choice, is slowly elaborated by the play of innumerable social forces. It is a vestment which accommodates itself to the body.'3 The individual is foolish; the multitude blunders at every given moment; but the species is wise, and, when time is given to it, as a species it almost always acts right.'3 Thus, in a philosophical sense, Burke believes in the wisdom-the unconscious wisdom--of our ancestors. In the Reflections' he quotes, with approval, the phrase of a great French lawyer, that the doctrine of prescription is part of the law of nature.'4 Elsewhere he says that property must be founded on the solid rock of prescription; the soundest, the most general, and the most recognised title between man and man that is known in municipal or in public jurisprudence; a title in which, not arbitrary institutions, but the eternal order of things, gives judgment; a title which is not the creature, but the master, of positive law; a title which, though not fixed in its term, is rooted in its principle in the law of nature itself, and is indeed the original ground of all known property.'5 Religion itself rests upon prescription. All the chief religions of Europe, he tells us, 'stand upon one common bottom. The support that • Ib. v. 276, 'Reflections.' Ib. ix. 449, 'To R. Burke.'

Burke, ii. 220, Present Discontents.' 2 Ib. x. 96.

3 Ib. x. 97.

the whole or the favoured parts may have in the secret dispensations of Providence it is impossible to tell; but, humanly speaking, they are all prescriptive religions.' He infers that Catholicism should not be discountenanced in Ireland; for, like all other forms of Christianity, it rests upon prescription, and the alternative is not Protestantism, but the infidelity which, in attacking prescription, attacks the vital principle of all the creeds.

103. This doctrine of prescription is susceptible of, and received in the hands of Burke, two very different interpretations. Stated crudely, it resembles but too closely the doctrine of all obstructive politicians. It is a version of the saying, 'Whatever is, is right;' the consecration of the absolute immobility, and the antithesis of a belief in progress. Burke too often inclines to this version of his theory. The doctrine that religion rests upon prescription may simply mean that, as a matter of fact, the overwhelming majority of mankind takes its creed upon trust; but Burke seems to infer that, because men believe without reasoning, their creeds should not be tested by reason. His firm conviction that the stability of the social fabric depended on the vitality of the national religion made him look askance upon the freethinkers. We Englishmen, he says, 'know, and, what is better, we feel inwardly, that religion is the basis of civil society, and the source of all good and of all comfort.' The statement justifies an eloquent defence of the Established Church; and he seems almost to think that the truth of the doctrines preached by so useful a body should never be questioned. Exulting over the fall of the deists, he pronounces it to be the disgrace, not the glory, of the age, that 'everything is to be discussed.' 3 We should beware how we scrutinised too closely claims sanctioned by so long a prescription. Tolerant as Burke was in spirit, he draws very distinct limits even to the principle of toleration; he would invoke the majesty of the laws to cut up the very root of atheism ;' and though all dissenting churches should be fully tolerated, he would not relax the subscriptions to meet their wishes. Truth,' he said, in speaking on the petition of the Feathers Tavern, may be Ib. v. 175, ib. Ib. x. 37, Protestant Dissenters.'

1 Burke, ix. 403, 'To W. Smith.' 2 Ib. v. 173, 'Reflections.'

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far better than peace; 'but as we have scarcely ever that same certainty in the one that we have in the other, I would, unless the truth were evident indeed, hold fast to peace, which has in her company charity, the highest of the virtues.'1 Peace will be disturbed if you once set fanaticism free by needlessly reopening settled questions. In such case Burke's reverence for prescription leads him into doubtful alliance with the bigots and the cynics. He would strengthen faith by stifling the free play of opinion; and forgets that a religion supported by a dread of awkward discussions must crumble when assailed by active opponents.

104. Even with this, the weaker side of Burke's teaching, there is blended much wisdom and eloquence, which distinguishes him from the allies who could boast of so able an advocate. But the doctrine of prescription admits of another and a far nobler meaning. Burke had fully grasped the conception of a nation as a living organism of complex structure and historical continuity. It is precisely the absence of any such conception which vitiates all the contemporary political speculation. He had emancipated himself from the purely mechanical and the purely mathematical conceptions of politics. The methods of the constitution-mongers and of the abstract theorists were equally beneath his notice; and the word 'prescription'-not free from an unfortunate ambiguity-evidences his recognition of that element which they equally neglected. Prescription, taken absolutely, may of course sanction anything--the English tyranny in America as well as English liberty at home. But, in appealing to 'prescription,' Burke is recognising the fact that ninety-nine hundredths of men's thoughts and instincts are those which they have inherited from their fathers, and of the corresponding doctrine, that reform is impracticable in the sense of an abrupt reconstruction of society, and can only be understood as the gradual modification of a complex structure. Prescription in this sense is based on the presumption that every existing social arrangement has been developed by certain needs, and is the mode in which certain forces operate; and that, therefore, to cut it away abruptly is possibly to inflict a vital injury, and at any rate implies rash and unscientific surgery. A sound 1 Burke, x. 37, 'Protestant Dissenters.'

political constitution must be the growth of generations; it must be worked into the whole fabric of society; it must give play for the harmonious action of all the private relations by which men are bound together; and if it requires the utmost watchfulness to prevent parts from becoming obsolete, it is the height of rashness to hack and hew such a system in obedience to some preconceived theory. Prescription, then, is but a legal phrase for that continuity of past and present, and that solidarity between all parts of the political order, the perception of which is the essential condition of sound political reasoning. A combination of respect for existing facts, and of a regard to new requirements, underlies Burke's practical teaching, as a balanced regard for general principles and for special applications governs his philosophy. When the reason of old establishments is gone,' he says, 'it is absurd to preserve nothing but the burden of them. This is superstitiously to embalm a carcase not worth an ounce of the grains that are used to preserve it.' He adds in the same speech, If I cannot reform with equity, I will not reform at all.' Those two views are combined in the 'Reflections.' 'All the reformations we have hitherto made,' he says, 'have proceeded upon the principle of reference to antiquity.'3 We have received our liberties as an entailed inheritance,'4 to be transmitted unimpaired to our descendants; and thus 'a disposition to preserve and an ability to improve taken together would be' his 'standard of a statesman.' 5

2

105. In order to do justice, however, to the force of Burke's perceptions, and to measure the doctrine which separated him from his contemporaries, we must descend to some of the applications of these generalities. It is easy to profess an anxiety to strike the judicious mean between revolution and obstruction; and now that Burke has been followed by two generations of able enquirers, it is not difficult to admit the truth of his general conception of the statesman's problem. But the true meaning of his doctrines comes out as he deals with the great questions of the day. Of his writings upon India I shall say nothing; not because they are inferior in

Burke, iii. 278, 'Economical Reform.'

2 Ib. iii. 299, ib.

3 lb. v. 75, 'Reflections.'

• Ib. v. 78, ib.

• Ib. v. 285, ib.