The colonies were not to be denied in this matter, and no amount of taxation or bullying on the part of the Mother Country would succeed. At this point Burke points out that after all, the Colonies are populated with people with British names. This is Burke bringing it all down to linkage with the family unit. Basically he is saying, the Colonies are a new nation made up of family, relatives, friends of the Mother Country. "My hold of the Colonies is in the close affection which grows from common names, from kindred blood..." And Burke is saying that these people that the leadership wants to go to war with are cousins, aunts, grandparents, nephews and nieces. At that point in his eloquent presentation for peace, Burke invokes Shakespearean drama; what could be more impressively British than embracing Othello (III, iii, 322-324), which he does by saying, "These are ties which, though light as air, are as strong as links of iron another..."

The passage from Othello: "Trifles light as air / Are to the jealous confirmations strong / as proofs of holy writ." And Burke goes on, alluding to Hamlet this time: And if the two ties (England and the Colonies) can exist "without any mutual relation, the cement is gone, the cohesion is loosened - and everything hasten to." The Hamlet passage: "The Friends thou hast and their adoption tried / Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel." (Hamlet I, iii, 62,63).

In his speech Burke discusses the "unity of the empire" and launches some pretty severe criticism at those who would go to war with the Colonies as having...

Moreover, he goes on, if England truly expects to remain the "sanctuary of liberty," the - "sacred temple consecrated to our common faith" - then no matter where the sons (and daughters) of England happen to be who indeed "worship freedom," they will be loyal ("turn their faces towards you") to the Mother Country. And the bigger the colonies grow, assuming that England is fair towards them and honors their dignity, he implies, "the more perfect will be their obedience."
In the last few sentences of this particular passage, Burke launches an attack on those in Parliament who are "vulgar" and who "have no place among us" and who "are not fit to turn a wheel in the machine." Obviously he is alluding to the conservatives who wish to have war to have things their own way and keep the colonies under the thumb of the crown. After all, he continues, "our ancestors" turned a "savage wilderness into a glorious empire...not by destroying, but by promoting the wealth, the number, the happiness, of the human race." This is a powerful speech, and the only regret is that there did not exist at that time the technology to videotape the presentation; it would be stirring and historically excellent in the context of the events leading up to the Revolutionary War.

Works Cited

Burke, Edmund. "Edmund Burke's Speech on Conciliation with America." May, 2004.

EBook #5655, Project Gutenberg.