Vindication of Natural Society Hogeye Condensed Version
page 3
  • external - relations with other States

    internal - relations with subjects








  • The State's external relations are characterized by war.









  • The powerful and poignant anti-war polemic in the next few pages hits even harder today; Burke lived before the massive death-tolls, weapons of mass destruction, and genocide of the 20th century.


In looking over any State to form a Judgment on it; it presents itself in two Lights, the external and the internal. The first, that Relation which it bears in point of Friendship or Enmity to other States. The second, that Relation its component Parts, the Governing, and the Governed, bear to each other.

The glaring Side is that of Enmity. War is the Matter which fills all History, and consequently the only, or almost the only View in which we can see the External of political Society, is in a hostile Shape; and the only Actions, to which we have always seen, and still see all of them intent, are such, as tend to the Destruction of one another. War, says Machiavelli, ought to be the only Study of a Prince; and by a Prince, he means every sort of State however constituted.

All Empires have been cemented in Blood; and in those early Periods when the Race of Mankind began first to form themselves into Parties and Combinations, the first Effect of the Combination, and indeed the End for which it seems purposely formed, and best calculated, is their mutual Destruction. All ancient History is dark and uncertain. One thing however is clear. There were Conquerors, and Conquests, in those Days; and consequently, all that Devastation, by which they are formed, and all that Oppression by which they are maintained.

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[Burke details wars and mass-murders throughout history.]
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ToAnarchPg Vindication of Natural Society