Lot 9
Burke, Edmund -- ALS re Philip Francis' yet-unpublished "Letter to Lord North" on the idea of social equality, Indian affairs and "this present cursed War in America." (1729-1797). Influential Anglo-Irish politician, orator and political thinker. Autograph letter signed ("Edm Burke"), 3 pages, 9 x 7¼". Docketed twice by the recipient, John Bourke, who had sent Burke an unpublished letter written by Philip Francis to Lord North about the administration of the East India Company's affairs in Bengal (the letter, although written in September 1777, was not published until 1793). Burke exclaims that he had "stayed up the greater part of the Night" reading the papers Bourke had sent him. "This morning I went through the whole. I dont know that I ever read any state paper drawn with more ability; & indeed that I have seldom read a paper of any kind with more pleasure."
Burke gives his thoughts on issues raised in Mr. Francis' letter. On property: "a nice scrutiny into the property & tenures of a whole Nation is almost always more alarming to the people, than advantageous to Government. It is never undertaken without some suspicion at least of an attempt to impose some new Burthen upon them ." With regard to the issue of equality, Burke states: "The idea of forcing every thing to an artificial equality has something, at first view, very captivating in it. It has all the appearance imaginable of Justice and good order & very many persons…have been led to adopt such schemes & to pursue them with earnestness & warmth…it has been the admiration of half the reforming Financiers of Europe. I mean the official Financiers, as well as the speculative. You know that it is this very rage for equality, which has blown up the flames of this present cursed War in America. I am, for one, entirely satisfied, that the inequality, which grows out of the nature of things by time, custom, successions, accumulation, permutation, & improvement of property, is much nearer that true equality, which is the foundation of equity & just policy, than any thing which can be contrived by the Tricks & devices of human Skill." Burke adds that Mr. Francis' paper has given him an idea he had not had before. "I find that Mr. Francis thinks, that the occupier of the Soil, & not the government, is the true proprietor of the land in Bengal….I am afraid that Mr. Francis begins, by his distance, to make very nearly as many mistaken judgments on our affairs here as we do on his in India." Boldly penned and signed. Housed in a customized folder. Estimate Value $4,000 - UP
James Copley Collection, Sothebys New York, April 14, 2010, Lot 33.
|
| |
| Realized $3,120 |
