POSTSCRIPT
Since writing these hasty thoughts, I hear it reported that we are to have an extension of our precarious reprieve, and that our six months are to be extended to six years. I would not have Scotland trust to this hollow truce. The measure ought, like all others, to be canvassed on its merits, and frankly admitted or rejected; it has been stirred and ought to be decided. I request my countrymen not to be soothed into inactivity by that temporising, and, I will say, unmanly vacillation. Government is pledged to nothing by taking an open course; for if the bill, so far as applicable to Scotland, is at present absolutely laid aside, there can be no objection to their resuming it at any period, when from change of circumstances, it may be advantageous to Scotland, and when, for what I know, it may be welcomed as a boon.
But if held over our heads as a minatory measure, to take place within a certain period, what can the event be but to cripple and ultimately destroy the present system, on which a direct attack is found at present inexpedient? Can the bankers continue to conduct their profession on the same secure footing, with an abrogation of it in prospect? Must it not cease to be what it has hitherto been—a business carried on both for their own profit, and for the accommodation of the country? Instead of employing their capital in the usual channels, must they not in self-defence employ it in forming others? Will not the substantial and wealthy withdraw their funds from that species of commerce? And may not the place of these be supplied by men of daring adventure, without corresponding capital, who will take a chance of wealth or ruin in the chances of the game?
If it is the absolute and irrevocable determination that the bill is to be extended to us, the sooner the great penalty is inflicted the better; for in politics and commerce, as in all the other affairs of life, absolute and certain evil is better than uncertainty and protracted suspense.
NOTES
- [P. 3.]
The exclusion—of James from the succession.
The rebellion—Monmouth's. - [P. 6.]
The Quakers.—A hit, of course, at Penn. - [P. 17.]
Piqueer, 'do outpost duty,' 'raid.' - [P. 18.]
Lords of the Articles.—A well-known body in the older Scottish Constitution, through whom only legislation could be originated, and who thus almost nullified the powers of Parliament. - [P. 20.]
Squeaziness = 'squeamishness,' 'queasiness.'
It is impossible.—Another form of 'No bishop no king.'
The new converts.—After the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. - [P. 22.]
T.W. is, of course, a mere fancy signature. It might stand for 'True Wellwisher' or anything. The wiseacres took it as ='W.T.,' William Temple. - [P. 27.]
Neither, for 'too,' is colloquial but rather picturesque. Cf. the famous 'And yet but yaw neither' in Hamlet. - [P. 47.]
I have not thought it desirable to reproduce the abundance of italics with which the original is furnished. They no doubt appealed to the vulgar, as where poor Mr. Wood is described (p. 50) as 'a mean ordinary man, a hard-ware dealer.' But the vigour of the onslaught is wholly independent of them. - [P. 50.]
Written—by Swift himself. - [P. 54.]
Bere, or 'bear,' also 'bigg,' a kind of barley largely cultivated in Ireland, Scotland, and Northern England. It has six rows in the ear, and will grow in much poorer ground and a much damper and rougher climate than the two-rowed variety. It is also, I believe, still thought to give the best whisky, if not the best beer, when malted. - [P. 55.]
Conolly.—Speaker of the Irish House of Commons. - [P. 56.]
Pistole—about ten shillings. - [P. 60.]
Brought to the bullion seems here to have the meaning of the French billonner or envoyer au billon, 'to melt for recoining.' - [P. 74.]
Our Cæsar's statue.—The statue of George I. on Essex Bridge, Dublin. - [P. 89.]
Contignation.—This rather pedantic, and now, I think, quite obsolete word (from tignum, 'beam') means 'having a common or continuous roof.' - [P. 99.]
The slackness of England in taking advantage of the Vendéan and Chouan movements, of which Burke here complains, has never been fully explained. The poltroonery of the Bourbon princes, and the factions of the emigrants, throw a certain but not a complete light on it; and though conjectural explanations are obvious enough, there is little positive evidence to support them. - [P. 107.]
But when the possibility ... that the.—It will probably seem to a modern reader that either 'that' or 'the' has crept in improperly. It might be so; but Burke still maintained the authoritative but rather inelegant tradition by which 'that,' like the French que, could replace any such antecedent word as 'when,' 'because,' etc. - [P. 112.]
Louis the Sixteenth.—To this is appended a note in the editions beginning, 'It may be right to do justice to Louis XVI. He did what he could to destroy the double diplomacy of France.' The subject has of late years received considerable illustration in the Duke of Broglie's Le Secret du Roi, and other works by the same author. - [P. 114.]
Montalembert.—Marc René, Marquis de (1714-1800), a voluminous military writer. - [P. 124.]
Harrington—of the Oceana. - [P. 134.]
Dear Abraham.—'Peter Plymley' addresses his Letters to 'my brother Abraham, who lives in the country,' and is a parson. - [P. 136.]
Baron Maseres.—Cursitor Baron of the Exchequer, a descendant of Huguenots, very well thought of by his contemporaries. Dr. Rennel I know not, unless he was the Herodotus man. - [P. 137.]
C——, Canning. - [P. 138.]
Dr. Duigenan.—A delightful person who, in his hot youth, as a junior Fellow of T.C., D., threatened to 'bulge the Provost's' [Provost Hely Hutchinson's] 'eye,' and was afterwards a pillar of Protestantism. - [P. 144.]
This light and frivolous jester was not the Rev. Sydney Smith, but George Canning, Esq. - [P. 154.]
The pecuniary Rose.—'Old George' Rose, Pitt's right hand. He was rather heavily rewarded with places and pensions; but even Liberals now admit that the country has hardly had an abler official.
Lord Hawkesbury, Jenkinson, better known as Lord Liverpool. - [P. 157.]
Tickell—the Rolliad Tickell. - [P. 170.]
Joel—Peter's nephew and Abraham's son. - [P. 193.]
Paint in the most horrid colours.—See, for instance, The Bloody Buoy and The Cannibal's Progress, by William Cobbett. - [P. 225.]
Flogging.—Some of the militia mutinied at Ely, and were punished, the guard on the occasion being furnished by the cavalry of the German Legion. Cobbett noticed this in the most inflammatory manner, and it being war time, was indicted, tried, found guilty, and sentenced as he describes. - [P. 229.]
Monks and friars.—A time came when Cobbett thought and wrote very differently of these persons. But that was his way. - [P. 245.]
Foundal.—I do not know whether Cobbett invented this equivalent for trouvaille, 'windfall,' or not. His notable scheme for breaking the Bank is a good example of him in his insaner moods. - [P. 253.]
The Duenna—Sheridan's. - [P. 256.]
The Jury Court.—Trial by jury in civil cases was only introduced into Scotland in 1815. - [P. 259.]
Evasive answer—to the effect that each queen was the fairest woman in her own country. - [P. 272.]
Doer = 'factor' or agent. - [P. 277.]
Them—as if 'Scotsmen' had been written for 'Scotland.' - [P. 281.]
Chosen Five and Forty—the original number of members assigned to Scotland. - [P. 283.]
Political pamphlet—'The Public Spirit of the Whigs.' - [P. 287.]
Durk, sic in original. - [P. 288.]
Cessio, sc. bonorum, whereby a debtor on giving up his property could be relieved of liabilities.
Adjudication, whereby a creditor could attach landed as well as personal property. - [P. 289.]
Lauch = 'laugh.'