PREFATORY NOTE THIS book presents the speech of Burke on Conciliation with America, a piece that has long served as an introduction to the study of oratory. It is a most interesting speech from its subject-matter as well as its form and style. The introduction and notes keep both points in view: it would be an empty study that did not consider the real value of Burke's plan in the light of the circumstances that gave rise to it, and so would one miss much who paid no attention to the remarkable way in which Burke presents and expounds his scheme, even though he failed at the moment to win over the hostile majority to which he spoke. Both points are worthy the student's careful study. Union College. EDWARD E. HALE, JR. INTRODUCTION HISTORICAL REVIEW THE speech of Burke on Conciliation with America concerns the history of our country at the time of its birth as a nation, and will not be understood without some reference to that history. The general facts are well known, but the course of affairs in the British Parliament that led to war is not so generally familiar. We shall, therefore, give a sketch of Parliamentary action for the period preceding Burke's speech. The cession of Canada and Florida to England in 1763 relieved the Thirteen Colonies of a constant danger and opened the way to an indefinite expansion and growth. From our present standpoint it may appear ridiculous to suppose that so vast and populous a territory as that of the United States to-day could ever remain long the dependency of a small country like England, three thousand miles away. But it must be remembered that the Thirteen Colonies in the eighteenth century were small and but slightly populated. A full settlement of the country was undreamed of: Burke's anticipation of the settling of the West on p. 32, shows how little anybody understood the real possibilities of the case. The Dominion of Canada to-day is larger geographically than any area that the Thirteen Colonies ever dreamed of possessing, and its population is almost three times as great as that of the V |