Details
BURKE, EDMUND. Two autograph letters signed ("Edm Burke") to Henry Dundas, first Viscount Melville, [London] "Nerots Hotel," 4 and 5 November 1794. Together 3 1/2 pages, 4to, with intergal blank leaves, gilt edges, each docketed, the first letter written in light ink, red watered-silk folding cast (a bit worn), with typed transcripts. Burke, although retired from parliament in July 1794, found it difficult to keep from interfering in government affairs. Here, during the early part of the first Napoleonic wars, Burke requests an interview with Viscount Melville (Prime Minister William Pitt's right hand man and Secretary of War) in an attempt to help conciliate the dissenting factions in Pitt's government.
4 November: "The unfortunate division in Ministry is no secret to the World, & consequently it is known to me. To some it may be an object of indifference; to others perhaps a matter of exultation. But I must regard it, & feel it too, as a dreadful misfortune. In what a tremendous state of our affairs abroad & at home does this calamity fall upon us? I am sure, under this sense of things, you will not think it a breach in my purpose of retirement, in which I am fixed by age, inclination, & the heavy hand of God, if I so far interfere (though I confess with not much hope of success) as to do all in my poor power to promote union amongst those, on whose mutual good understanding the very being of mankind depends. Perhaps if I had not been as active as I have been in forwarding this coalition I might have beheld its rupture with a greater degree of tranquility...Now, with less claim perhaps to vigour of understanding, I have the claim of a mind free from all Bias. In the Character, not of an able but an impartial man, I wish to lay before you such thoughts as occur to me..."
5 November (after receiving Viscount Melville's guarded reply): "I give you many thanks for your good-natured permission to let me see you...But, as you do not seem to think, that any great good can arise from our conversation upon the Subject to which I alluded, & as indeed my own hopes in any thing I could suggest were far from sanguine, -- I think it would be quite unreasonable to prespass on you. So I shall defer troubling you with a Visit until I may hav some matter of conversation that may be more pleasant, if not more advantageous to you -- for as to me nothing of the kind can happen..." (Milne)
4 November: "The unfortunate division in Ministry is no secret to the World, & consequently it is known to me. To some it may be an object of indifference; to others perhaps a matter of exultation. But I must regard it, & feel it too, as a dreadful misfortune. In what a tremendous state of our affairs abroad & at home does this calamity fall upon us? I am sure, under this sense of things, you will not think it a breach in my purpose of retirement, in which I am fixed by age, inclination, & the heavy hand of God, if I so far interfere (though I confess with not much hope of success) as to do all in my poor power to promote union amongst those, on whose mutual good understanding the very being of mankind depends. Perhaps if I had not been as active as I have been in forwarding this coalition I might have beheld its rupture with a greater degree of tranquility...Now, with less claim perhaps to vigour of understanding, I have the claim of a mind free from all Bias. In the Character, not of an able but an impartial man, I wish to lay before you such thoughts as occur to me..."
5 November (after receiving Viscount Melville's guarded reply): "I give you many thanks for your good-natured permission to let me see you...But, as you do not seem to think, that any great good can arise from our conversation upon the Subject to which I alluded, & as indeed my own hopes in any thing I could suggest were far from sanguine, -- I think it would be quite unreasonable to prespass on you. So I shall defer troubling you with a Visit until I may hav some matter of conversation that may be more pleasant, if not more advantageous to you -- for as to me nothing of the kind can happen..." (Milne)