Page:Works of Burke (Nimmo 1887) vol. 2.djvu/13

 PREFACE. THE following speech has been much the sub- ject of conversation, and the desire of having it printed was last summer very general. The means of gratifying the public curiosity were obligingly fur- nished from the notes of some gentlemen, members of the last Parliament. This piece has been for some months ready for the press. But a delicacy, possibly over-scrupulous, has delayed the publication to this time. The friends of administration have been used to attribute a great deal of the opposition to their measures in America to the writings published in England. The editor of this speech kept it back, until all the measures of government have had their full operation, and can be no longer affected, if ever they could have been affect- ed, by any publication. Most readers will recollect the uncommon pains taken at the beginning of the last session of the last Parliament, and indeed during the whole course of it, to asperse the characters and decry the measures of those who were supposed to be friends to America, in order to weaken the effect of their opposition to the acts of rigor then preparing against the colonies. The speech contains a full refutation of the charges against that party with which Mr. Burke has all along acted. In doing this, he has taken a review of