of the few reflections on
the subject of the present executions which occurred to me in the
earliest period of the late disturbances, and which all my experience
and observation since have most strongly confirmed. The executions,
taking those which have been made, which are now ordered, and which may
be the natural consequence of the convictions in Surrey, will be
undoubtedly too many to answer any good purpose. Great slaughter
attended the suppression of the tumults, and this ought to be taken in
discount from the execution of the law. For God's sake entreat of Lord
North to take a view of the sum total of the deaths, before any are
ordered for execution; for by not doing something of this kind people
are decoyed in detail into severities they never would have dreamed of,
if they had the whole in their view at once. The scene in Surrey would
have affected the hardest heart that ever was in an human breast.
Justice and mercy have not such opposite interests as people are apt to
imagine. I saw Lord Loughborough last night. He seemed strongly
impressed with the sense of what necessity obliged him to go through,
and I believe will enter into our ideas on the subject. On this matter
you see that no time is to be lost. Before a final determination, the
first thing I would recommend is, that, if the very next execution
cannot be delayed, (by the way, I do not see why it may not,) it may be
of but a single person, and that afterwards you should not exceed two or
three; for it is enough for one riot, where the very act of Parliament
on which you proceed is rather a little hard in its sanctions and its
construction: not that I mean to complain of the latter as either new or
strained, but it was rigid from the first.

I am, dear Sir,

Your most obedient humble servant,

EDMUND BURKE.

Tuesday, 18th July, 1780.

I really feel uneasy on this business, and should consider it as a sort
of personal favor, if you do something to limit the extent and severity
of the law on this point. Present my best compliments to Lord North, and
if he thinks that I have had wishes to be serviceable to government on
the late occasion, I shall on my part think myself abundantly rewarded,
if a few lives less than first intended should be saved [taken?]; I
should sincerely set it down as a personal obligation, though the thing
stands upon general and strong reason of its own.[21]

FOOTNOTES:

[20] One of the Secretaries of the Treasury.

[21