SUBSTANCE OF THE SPEECH, &c. &c. R BURKE's fpeech on the report of the MR army estimates has not been correctly stated in fome of the publick papers. It is of confequence to him not to be misunderstood. The matter which incidentally came into difcuffion is of the most serious importance. It is thought that the heads and fubftance of the speech will answer the purpose fufficiently. If in making the abstract, through defect of memory, in the perfon who now gives it, any difference at all fhould be perceived from the fpeech as it was spoken, it will not, the editor imagines, be found in any thing which may amount to a retraction of the opinions he then maintained, or to any softening in the expreffions in which they were conveyed. Mr. Burke spoke a confiderable time in answer to various arguments which had been infifted upon by Mr. Grenville and Mr. Pitt, for keeping an increafed peace establishment, and against an improper jealoufy of the minifters, in whom a full confidence, B 2 fidence, fubject to responsibility, ought to be placed, on account of their knowledge of the real fituation of affairs; the exact ftate of which it frequently happened, that they could not disclose, without violating the conftitutional and political fecrecy, neceffary to the well-being of their country. Mr. Burke faid in substance, That confidence might become a vice, and jealousy a virtue, according to circumftances. That confidence, of all publick virtues, was the moft dangerous, and jealoufy in an house of commons, of all publick vices, the most tolerable; efpecially where the number and the charge of standing armies, in time of peace, was the queftion. That in the annual mutiny bill, the annual army was declared to be for the purpose of preserving the balance of power in Europe. The propriety of its being larger or smaller depended, therefore, upon the true ftate of that balance. If the increase of peace establishments demanded of parliament agreed with the manifeft appearance of the balance, confidence in minifters, as to the particulars, would be very proper. If the increase was not at all fupported by any fuch appearance, he thought great jealoufy might, and ought to be, entertained on that fubject. That he did not find, on a review of all Europe, that, politically, we stood in the smallest degree of danger danger from any one state or kingdom it contained; nor that any other foreign powers than our own allies were likely to obtain a confiderable preponderance in the scale. That France had hitherto been our first object, in all confiderations concerning the balance of power. The prefence or absence of France totally varied every fort of fpeculation relative to that balance. That France is, at this time, in a political light, to be confidered as expunged out of the fyftem of Europe. Whether fhe could ever appear in it again, as a leading power, was not easy to determine: but at present he confidered France as not politically exifting; and moft affuredly it would take up much time to restore her to her former active existence-Gallos quoque in bellis floruiffe audivimus, might poffibly be the language of the rifing generation. He did not mean to deny that it was our duty to keep our eye on that nation, and to regulate our preparation by the symptoms of her recovery. That it was to her strength, not to her form of government which we were to attend; because republicks, as well as monarchies, were susceptible of ambition, jealoufy, and anger, the ufual causes of war. But if, while France continued in this fwoon, we should go on increasing our expences, we should B 3 L should certainly make ourselves lefs a match for her, when it became our concern to arm. It was faid, that as she had speedily fallen, fhe might speedily rife again. He doubted this. That the fall from an height was with an accelerated velocity; but to lift a weight up to that height again was difficult, and oppofed by the laws of physical and political gravitation. In a political view, France was low indeed. She had loft every thing, even to her name. "Facet ingens littore truncus, Avolfumque humeris caput, et fine nomine corpus." He was aftonished at it-he was alarmed at ithe trembled at the uncertainty of all human greatnefs. Since the house had been prorogued in the fummer much work was done in France. The French * Mr. Burke, probably, had in his mind the remainder of he paffage, and was filled with fome congenial apprehensions: "Hæc finis Priami fatorum; hic exitus illum "Sorte tulit, Trojam incenfam, & prolapsa videntem 66 Pergama; tot quondam populis, terrifque, fuperbum "Obftupui: fubiit chari genitoris imago" had had fhewn themselves the ableft architects of ruin that had hitherto exifted in the world. In that very short space of time they had completely pulled down to the ground, their monarchy; their church; their nobility; their law; their revenue; their army; their navy; their commerce; their arts; and their manufactures. They had done their business for us as rivals, in a way in which twenty Ramillies or Blenheims could never have done it. Were we abfolute conquerors, and France to lie proftrate at our feet, we should be ashamed to fend a commiffion to fettle their affairs, which could impofe fo hard a law upon the French, and fo deftructive of all their confequence as a nation, as that they had impofed upon themselves. France, by the mere circumstance of its vicinity, had been, and in a degree always muft be, an object of our vigilance, either with regard to her actual power, or to her influence and example, As to the former, he had spoken; as to the latter, (her example) he should fay a few words: for by this example our friendship and our intercourfe with that nation had once been, and might again, become more dangerous to us than their worst hoftility. In the last century, Louis the Fourteenth had established a greater and better difciplined military force than ever had been before seen in Eu |