r
quitted their allegiance to theirs and our sovereign, at the time when
they had broken off all connection with this nation and had allied
themselves with its enemies. He certainly must have thought it open to
ridicule; and now that it is recalled to his memory, (he had, I believe,
wholly forgotten the circumstance,) he recollects that he did treat it
with some levity. But is it a fair inference from a jest on this
unseasonable lamentation, that he was then an enemy to monarchy, either
in this or in any other country? The contrary perhaps ought to be
inferred,--if anything at all can be argued from pleasantries good or
bad. Is it for this reason, or for anything he has said or done relative
to the American war, that he is to enter into an alliance offensive and
defensive with every rebellion, in every country, under every
circumstance, and raised upon whatever pretence? Is it because he did
not wish the Americans to be subdued by arms, that he must be
inconsistent with himself, if he reprobates the conduct of those
societies in England, who, alleging no one act of tyranny or oppression,
and complaining of no hostile attempt against our ancient laws, rights,
and usages, are now endeavoring to work the destruction of the crown of
this kingdom, and the whole of its Constitution? Is he obliged, from the
concessions he wished to be made to the colonies, to keep any terms with
those clubs and federations who hold out to us, as a pattern for
imitation, the proceedings in France, in which a king, who had
voluntarily and formally divested himself of the right of taxation, and
of all other species of arbitrary power, has been dethroned? Is it
because Mr. Burke wished to have America rather conciliated than
vanquished, that he must wish well to the army of republics which are
set up in France,--a country wherein not the people, but the monarch,
was wholly on the defensive, (a poor, indeed, and feeble defensive,) to
preserve _some fragments_ of the royal authority against a determined
and desperate body of conspirators, whose object it was, with whatever
certainty of crimes, with whatever hazard of war, and every other
species of calamity, to annihilate the _whole_ of that authority, to
level all ranks, orders, and distinctions in the state, and utterly to
destroy property, not more by their acts than in their principles?

Mr. Burke has been also reproached with an inconsistency between his
late writings and his former conduct, be