be satisfied with a justification proceeding on ge-
neral reasons of policy. He must be defended on
party grounds too ; or his cause is not so tenable
as I wish it to appear. It must be made out for
him, not only, that, in his construction of these
publick acts and monuments, he conforms himself
to the rules of fair, legal, and logical interpreta-
tion ; but it must be proved that his construction
is in perfect harmony with that of the ancient
whigs,
TO THE OLD WHIGS. 14-3
whigs, to whom, against the sentence of the mo-
derns, on his part, I here appeal.
This July, it will be twenty-six years * since he
became connected with a man whose memory will
ever be precious to Englishmen of all parties, as
long as the ideas of honour and virtue, publick
and private, are understood and cherished in this
nation. That memory will be kept alive with
particular veneration by all rational and honour-
able whigs. Mr. Burke entered into a connexion
with that party, through tha man, at an age, far
from raw and immature ; at those years when men
are all they are ever likely to become ; when he
was in the prime and vigour of his life ; when the
powers of his understanding, according to their
standard, were at the best ; his memory exercised ;
his judgment formed; and his reading, much
fresher in the recollection, and much readier in
the application, than now it is. He was at that
time as likely as most men to know what were
whig and what were tory principles. He was in
a situation to discern what sort of whig principles
they entertained with whom it was his wish to
form an eternal connexion. Foolish he would
have been at that time of life (more foolish than
any man who undertakes a publick trust would be
thought) to adhere to a cause, which he, amongst
July lyth, 1765.
all
I4>4s APPEAL FKOM THE NEW
all those who were engaged in it, had the least san-
guine hopes of a road to power.
There are who remember, that on the removal
of the Whigs in the year 1766, he was as free to
choose another connexion as any man in the
kingdom. To put himself out of the way of the
negociations which were then carrying on very
eagerly, and through many channels, with the Earl
of Chatham, he went to Ireland very soon after
the change of ministry, and did not return until
the meeting of parliament. He was at that time
free from any thing which looked like an engage-
ment. He was further free at the desire of his
friends; for, the very day of his return, the Mar-
quis of Rockingham wished him to accept an
employment under the new system. He believes
he might have had such a situation ; but again he
cheerfully took his fate with the party.
It would be a serious imputation upon the pru-
dence of my friend, to have made even such tri-
vial sacrifices as it was in his power to make, for
principles which he did not truly embrace, or did
not perfectly understand. In either case the folly
would have been great. The question now is,
whether, when he first practically professed whig
principles, he understood what principles he pro-
fessed ; and whether, in his book, he has faithfully
expressed them.
When
TO THE OLD WHIGS.
When lie entered into the whig party, he did
not conceive that they pretended to any disco-
veries. They did not affect to be better whigs
than those were who lived in the days in which
principle was put to the test. Some of the whigs
of those days were then living. They were what
the whigs had been at the Revolution : what they
had been during the reign of queen Anne ; what
they had been at the accession of the present royal
family.
What they were at those periods is to be seen.
It rarely happens to a party to have the opportu-
nity of a clear, authentick, recorded declaration of
their political tenets upon the subject of a great
constitutional event like that of the Revolution.
The whigs had that opportunity, or, to speak more
properly, they made it. The impeachment of
Dr. Sacheverel was undertaken by a whig minis-
try and a whig house of commons, and carried
on before a prevalent and steady majority of whig
peers. It was carried on for the express purpose
of stating the true grounds and principles of the
Revolution ; what the commons emphatically call-
ed their foundation. It was Carried on for the pur-
pose of condemning the principles on which the
Revolution was first opposed, and afterwards ca-
lumniated, in order, by a juridical sentence of the
highest authority, to confirm and fix whig prin-
ciples, as they had operated both in the resistance
VOL, vi. L to
146 AFPEAL FROM THE NEW
to king James, and in the subsequent Settlement ;
and to fix them in the extent and with the limi-
tations with which it was meant they should be
understood by posterity. The ministers and ma-
nagers for the commons were persons who had,
many of them, an active share in the Revolution.
Most of them had seen it at an age capable of re-
flection. The grand event, and all the discussions
which led to it, and followed it, were then alive
in the memory and conversation of all men. The
managers for the commons must be supposed to
have spoken on that subject the prevalent ideas of
the leading party in the commons, and of the
whig ministiy. Undoubtedly they spoke also their
own private opinions ; and the private opinions
of such men are not without weight. They were
not umbr atiles doctores, men who had studied a free
constitution only in its anatomy, and upon dead
systems. They knew it alive and in action.
In this proceeding, the whig principles, as ap-
plied to the Revolution and Settlement, are to be
found, or they are to be found no where. I wish
the whig readers of this appeal first to turn to
Mr. Burke's Reflections from page 49 to page 81 ;
and then to attend to the following extracts
from the trial of Dr. Sacheverel. After this,
they will consider two things ; first, whether the
doctrine in Mr. Burke's Reflections be consonant
to that of the whigs of that period , and, secondly,
whether
TO THE OLD WHIGS. 147
whether they choose to abandon the principles
which belonged to the progenitors of some of
them, and to the predecessors of them all, and
to learn new principles of whiggism, imported
from France, and disseminated in this country
from dissenting pulpits, from federation societies,
and from the pamphlets, which (as containing the
political creed of those synods) are industriously
circulated in all parts of the two kingdoms. This
is their affair, and they will make their option.
These new whigs hold, that the sovereignty,
whether exercised by one or many, did not only
originate from the people (a position not denied
nor worth denying or assenting to) but that, in
the people the same sovereignty constantly and
unalienably resides ; that the people may lawfully
depose kings, not only for misconduct, but with-
out any misconduct at all ; that they may set up
any new fashion of government for themselves, or
continue without any government at their plea-
sure ; that the people are essentially their own rule,
and their will the measure of their conduct ; that
the tenure of magistracy is not a proper subject of
contract ; because magistrates have duties, but no
rights ; and that if a contract de facto is made with
them in one age, allowing that it binds at all, it
only binds those who are immediately concerned
in it, but does not pass to posterity. These doc-
trines concerning the people (a term which they
L 2 are
148 APPEAL FROM THE NEW
are far from accurately defining, but by which,
from many circumstances, it is plain enough they
mean their own faction, if they should grow by
early arming, by treachery, or violence, into the
prevailing force) tend, in my opinion, to the utter
subversion, not only of all government, in all
modes, and to all stable securities to rational free-
dom, but to all the rules and principles of morality
itself.
I assert, that the ancient whigs held doctrines,
totally different from those I have last mentioned.
I assert, that the foundations laid down by the
commons, on the trial of Dr. Sacheverel, for jus-
tifying the Revolution of 1688, are the very same
laid down in Mr. Burke's Reflections ; that is to
say, a-breach of the original contract, implied and
expressed in the constitution of this country, as a
scheme of government fundamentally and invio-
lably fixed in king, lords, and commons. That
the fundamental subversion of this ancient consti-
tution, by one of its parts, having been attempted,
and in effect accomplished, justified the Revolution.
That it was justified only upon the necessity of the
case ; as the only means left for the recovery of
that ancient constitution, formed by the original
contract of the British state ; as well as for the fu-
ture preservation of the same government. These
are the points to be proved.
A general opening to the charge against Dr.
Sacheverel
TO THE OLD WHIGS. 149
Sacheverel was made by the attorney-general, Sir
John Montague : but as there is nothing in that
opening speech which tends very accurately to
settle the principle upon which the wings pro-
ceeded in the prosecution (the plan of the speech
not requiring it) I proceed to that of Mr. Lech-
mere, the manager, who spoke next after him.
The following are extracts, given, not in the ex-
act order in which they stand in the printed trial,
but in that which is thought most fit to bring the
ideas of the whig commons distinctly under our
view.
MR. LECH MERE*.
' It becomes an indispensable duty upon us, who
* appear in the name and on the behalf of all the
* commons of Great Britain, not only to demand
1 your lordships justice on such a criminal [Dr.
* Sacheverel] but clearly and openly to assert our
'foundations?
' The nature of our constitution is that of a li- That the
* mited monarchy ; wherein the supreme power is
* communicated and divided between queen, lords, UJJ
' and commons ; though the executive power and
* administration be wholly in the Crown. The
' terms of such a constitution do not only suppose,
* State Trials, vol. v, p. 651.
L 3 'but
terms of our
constitu-
150 APPEAL FROM THE NEW
That the * but express, an original contract between the
mutual ' Crown and the people ; by which that supreme
' power was (by mutual consent, and not by ac-
the 65 ' cident) limited and lodged in more hands than
parties. ( Qne j^^ ^ e uniform preservation of such a
The mixed
constitution ' constitution for so many ages, without any fun-
uniformly
preserved damcntal change, demonstrates to your lordships
for many
ages, and is ' the continuance of the same contract. - -
the con- l The consequences of such a frame of govern-
Laws the ' men t are obvious. That the laws are the rule
common
measure to
DO th the common measure of the power of
king and < ^ ne Crown, and of the obedience of the subject :
subject. J
1 and if the executive part endeavours the subver-
' sion and total destruction of the government, the
' original contract is thereby broke, and the right
Case of fun- ' of allegiance ceases ; that part of the government,
and ' tnus fundamentally injured, hath a right to save
' or recover that constitution in which it had an
contract. < original interest.' - -
Words e- ' ^ e necessary means (which is the phrase used
c ^ fa e commons in their first article) are words
with < ma( ie choice of by them with the greatest caution.
caution. f
1 Those means are described (in the preamble to
' their charge) to be, that glorious enterprise,
* which his late Majesty undertook, with an arm-
' ed force, to deliver this kingdom from popery
1 and arbitrary power ; the concurrence of many
c subjects of the realm, who came over with him
' in that enterprise, and of many others of all
' ranks
TO THE OLD M'HIGS. 151
ranks and orders, who appeared in arms in many
parts of the kingdom in aid of that enterprise.
1 These were the means that brought about the
Revolution ; and which the act that passed soon
after, declaring the rights and liberties of the
subject, and settling the succession of the Crown,
intends, when his late majesty is therein called the
glorious instrument of delivering the kingdom',
and which the commons, in the last part of their
first article, express by the word resistance.
' But the commons, who will never be unmind- Regard of
the com-
ful of the allegiance of the subjects to the Crown mons to
PI- 1 1 1 1 1 1
' ot this realm, judged it highly incumbent upon glance to
* them, out of regard to the safety of her majesty s and to the'
' person and government, and the ancient and legal
' constitution of this kingdom, to call that resistance tK
* the necessary means ; thereby plainly founding
' that power, right, and resistance, which was ex-
4 ercised by the people at the time of the happy
* Revolution, and which the duties of self-preser-
1 vation and religion called them to, upon the NE-
' CESSITY of the case, and at the same time ef-
' fectually securing her majesty's government, and
* the due allegiance of all her subjects.' - -
' The nature of such an original contract of go-
* vernment proves, that there is not only a power sam< ! inte -
rest in pre-
' in the people, who have inherited this freedom, to station of
* assert their own title to it : but they are bound tract, and
the same
in constitu-
tion.
152 APPEAL FROM THE NEW
' in duty to transmit the same constitution to their
' posterity also/
Mr. Lechmere made a second speech. Notwith-
standing the clear and satisfactory manner in which
he delivered himself in his first, upon this arduous
question, he thinks himself bound again distinctly
to assert the same foundation ; and to justify the
Revolution on the case of necessity only, upon prin-
ciples perfectly coinciding with those laid down
in Mr. Burke's letter on the French aifairs.
MR. LECHMERE.
The com- ' Your lordships were acquainted, in opening
tne charge, with how great caution, and with
unfeigned regard to her majesty and her
ceisit " e " ' government, and the duty and allegiance of her
j
sdf de nd * subjects, the commons made use of the words
fence. < necessary means, to express the resistance that was
1 made use of to bring about the Revolution, and
' with the condemning of which the doctor is
; charged by this article; not doubting but that the
' honour and justice of that resistance, from the
1 necessity of that case, and to which alone we have
' strictly
TO THE OLD WHIGS. 153
' strictly confined ourselves, when duly considered,
' would confirm and strengthen f, and be under- J^J; J]
* stood to be an effectual security for an allegiance P' ies that
J allegiance
* of the subject to the Crown of this realm, in every would be
insecure
' other case where there is not the same necessity ; without
this restnc-
* and that the right of the people to self-defence, tion.
1 and preservation of their liberties, by resistance
' as their last remedy, is the result of a case of
1 such necessity only, and by which the original
' contract between king and people is broke.
1 This was the principle laid down and carried
1 through all that was said with respect to alle-
1 giance ; and on which foundation, in the name
1 and on the behalf of all the commons of Great
' Britain, we assert and justify that resistance by
* which the late happy Revolution was brought
' about.'
* It appears to your lordships and the world,
' that breaking the original contract between
1 king and people, were the words made choice of
' by that house of commons, [the house of commons
' which originated the Declaration of Right,] with
4 the greatest deliberation and judgment, and ap-
' proved of by your lordships, in that first and fun-
* damental step towards the re-establishment of
' the government, which had received so great a
1 shock from the evil counsels which had been
* given to that unfortunate prince.'
* * # * * #
Sir
I54f APPEAL FROM THE NEW
Sir John Hawles, another of the managers fol-
lows the steps of his brethren, positively affirming
the doctrine of non-resistance to government to
be the general, moral, religious, and political rule
for the subject ; and justifying the Revolution on
the same principle with Mr. Burke, that is, as an
exception from necessity. Indeed he carries the
doctrine on the general idea of non-resistance much
further than Mr. Burke has done ; and full as far
as it can perhaps be supported by any duty of
perfect obligation ; however noble and heroick it
may be in many cases to suffer death rather than
disturb the tranquillity of our country.
SIR JOH3ST HAWLES.
* Certainly it must be granted, that the doctrine
' that commands obedience to the supreme power,
' though in things contrary to nature, even to suf-
' fer death, which is the highest injustice that can
' be done a man, rather than make an opposition to
' the supreme power [is reasonable j]f because the
1 death of one, or some few private persons is a
* Page 676.
\ The words necessary to the completion of the sentence are
wanting in the printed trial but the construction of the sen-
tence, as well as the foregoing part of the speech, justifies the
insertion of some such supplemental words as the above.
' less
TO THE OLD WHIGS. 155
less evil than disturbing the whole government ;
that law must needs be understood to forbid the
doing or saying any thing to disturb the govern-
ment ; the rather because the obeying that law
cannot be pretended to be against nature : and
the doctor's refusing to obey that implicit law,
is the reason for which he is now prosecuted ;
though he would have it believed, that the rea-
son he is now prosecuted, was for the doctrine
he asserted of obedience to the supreme power;
\\hich he might have preached as long as he had
pleased, and the commons would have taken no
offence at it, if he had stopped there, and not
have taken upon him, on that pretence or occa-
sion, to have cast odious colours upon the Revo-
lution.'
General Stanhope was among the managers :
He begins his speech by a reference to the opinion
of his fellow managers, which he hoped had put
beyond all doubt the limits and qualifications that
the commons had placed 'to their doctrines con-
cerning the Revolution ; yet, not satisfied with this
general reference, after condemning the principle
of non-resistance, which is asserted in the sermon
without any exception, and stating, that, under
the specious pretence of preaching a peaceable
doctrine,
156
APPEAL FROM THE NEW
doctrine, Sacheverel and the Jacobites meant, irt
reality, to excite a rebellion in favour of the pre-
tender, he explicitly limits his ideas of resistance
and the boundaries laid down by his colleagues,
and by Mr. Burke.
Tlights of
the subject
and the
crown
equally
legal.
Justice of
resistance
founded on
necessity.
GENERAL STANHOPE.
' The constitution of England is founded upon
compact ; and the subjects of this kingdom have,
in their several publick and private capacities, as
legal a title to what are their rights by law, as a
prince to the possession of his crown.
' Your lordships, and most that hear me, are
witnesses, and must remember the necessities of
those times which brought about the Revolution :
that no other remedy was left to preserve our re-
ligion and liberties ; that resistance was neces-
sary, and consequently just'
' Had the doctor, in the remaining part of his
sermon, preached up peace, quietness, and the
like ; and shewn how happy we are under her
majesty's administration, and exhorted obedience
to it; he had never been called to answer a charge
at your lordships bar. But the tenor of all his
subsequent discourse is one continued invective
against the government.
Mr.
TO THE OLD WHIGS. 15?
Mr. Walpole (afterwards Sir Robert) was one
of the managers on this occasion. He was an ho-
nourable man and a sound whig. He was not, as
the Jacobites and discontented whigs of his time
have represented him, and as ill-informed people
still represent him, a prodigal and corrupt mini-
ster. They charged him, in their libels and sedi-
tious conversations, with having first reduced cor-
ruption to a system. Such was their cant. But
he was far from governing by corruption. He
governed by party attachments. The charge of
systematick corruption is less applicable to him,
perhaps, than to any minister who ever served the
Crown for so great a length of time. He gained
over very few from the opposition. Without being
a genius of the first class, he was an intelligent,
prudent, and safe minister. He loved peace; and
he helped to communicate the same disposition to
nations at least as warlike and restless as that in
which he had the chief direction of affairs. Though
he served a master who was fond of martial fame,
he kept all the establishments very low. The
land tax continued at two shillings in the pound
for the greater part of his administration. The
other impositions were moderate. The profound
repose, the equal liberty, the firm protection of
just laws during the long period of his* power,
were the principal causes of that prosperity
which afterwards took such rapid strides towards
perfection - t
158 APPEAL FROM THE NEW
perfection ; and which furnished to this nation ability
to acquire the military glory which it has since
obtained, as well as to bear the burthens, the cause
and consequence of that warlike reputation. With
many virtues, public and private, he had his
faults; but his faults were superficial. A careless,
coarse, and over familiar style of discourse, with-
out sufficient regard to persons or occasions, and
an almost total want of political decorum, were
the errours by which he was most hurt in the
publick opinion ; and those through which his
enemies obtained the greatest advantage over him.
But justice must be done. The prudence, steadi-
ness, and vigilance of that man, joined to the
greatest possible lenity in his character and his
politicks, preserved the crown to this royal family;
and with it, their laws and liberties to this coun-
try. Walpole had no other plan of defence for
the Revolution, than that of the other managers,
and of Mr. Burke ; and he gives full as little coun-
tenance to any arbitrary attempts, on the part of
restless and factious men, for framing new govern-
ments according to their fancies.
MR. WALPOLE.
Case of re- < Resistance is no where enacted to be legal, but
sistance out
of the law, < subjected, by all the laws now in being, to the
and the J
highest of- < greatest penalties. It is what is not, cannot, nor
< ought
TO THE OLD WHIGS. 159
ought ever to be described, or affirmed in any
positive law, to be excusable : when, and upon
what never-to-be-expected occasions, it may be ex-
ercised, no man can foresee ; and it ought never
to be thought of, but when an utter subversion of
the laws of the realm threatens the whole frame
of our constitution, and no redress can other-
wise be hoped for. It therefore does, and ought for
ever y to stand, in the eye and letter of the law, as
the highest offence. But because any man, or
party of men, may not, out of folly or wantonness,
commit treason, or make their own discontents,
ill principles, or disguised affections to another in-
terest, a pretence to resist the supreme power,
will it follow from thence that the utmost neces- t Ttra .' ne-
cessity
sity ought not to engage a nation in its 0^/2 justifies it.
defence for the preservation of the whole?
Sir Joseph Jekyl was, as I have always heard
and believed, as nearly as an individual could be,
the very standard of whig principles in his age.
He was a learned, and an able man ; full of ho-
nour, integrity, and publick spirit; no lover of
innovation ; nor disposed to change his solid prin-
ciples for the giddy fashion of the hour. Let us
hear this whig.
SIB
160
APPEAL FROM THE NEW
Commons
do not stale
To secure
the laws,
the only
aim of the
Revolution.
SIR JOSEPH JEKYL.
In clearing up and vindicating the justice of
Revolution, which was the second thing pro-
posed, it is far from the intent of the commons
to state the limits and bounds of the subjects sub-
mission to the sovereign. That which the law
hath been wisely silent in, the commons desire to
be silent in too ; nor will they put any case of a
justifiable resistance, but that of the Revolution
only; and they persuade themselves that the
doing right to that resistance will be so far from