"Proper Trust of Liberty": economical reform, the English constitution and the protections of accounting during the American War of Independence, The

Accounting History,  Feb 2008  by Funnell, Warwick

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the plan of extending the influence of the Crown ... blazed forth in all its odious colours; and here it was that that influence, under the impositous pretence of asserting the rights of parliament, was employed to vest the patronage or unlimited sovereignty of all America in the Crown. (Lord Rockingham, Parliamentary History, Vol.XX, 8 February 1780, col. 1347)

The Crown, announced Burke, had been allowed by the greatly increased opportunities for corruption provided by the War of Independence to "insinuate itself into every creek and cranny in the kingdom"12 (Burke, Parliamentary History, Vol.XX, 15 December 1779, col. 1297; O'Gorman, 1973, p.50; see Burke cited in Magnus, 1939, p.97; Burke 11 February 1776 cited in Elofson and Woods, 1996, pp.483, 546) and, thereby, threaten the constitution and the liberty of Englishmen (Burke 15 December 1779 cited in Elofson and Woods, 1996, pp.471,474). Meanwhile Pitt,13 soon to become in December 1783 the youngest prime minister in British history, warned that the country had fallen into "a state of humiliation" that threatened its liberty for there was:

something radically wrong with the constitution ... The house itself had discovered that a secret influence of the Crown was sapping the very foundation of liberty by corruption ... [wjhere if it once got footing ... liberty could no longer find asylum. The house of commons which, according to the true spirit of the constitution should be the guardian of the people's freedom, the constitutional check and control over the executive power, would through influence degenerate into a mere engine of tyranny and oppression to destroy the constitution in effect ... (Parliamentary History, Vol.XXIII, 1782, cols. 829-75, emphasis added)

For Burke the "distinguishing part" of the English constitution was its liberty. To "preserve that liberty inviolate", warned Burke, "seems the particular duty and proper trust of a member of the House of Commons" (Edmund Burke, Speech at Bristol 1774 in Burke, 1942, p.66, see also Burke, 1790 cited in Roberts, 1977, p.59; on the matter of liberty as the essence of the Constitution see also Macaulay, 1907/1966, p.31; John Telwall cited in Ward, 2004, p.186; Burke, A Letter to John Farr and John Harris on the Affairs of America 1777, in Burke, 1942, p.221; Dicey, 1926, p.xxxvii). Indeed, the Act of Settlement in 1701 had sought to reinforce the constitutional relationship between Crown and parliament that had been forged in the Declaration of Right (1689), and later the Bill of Rights, by affirming the need "for the further limitation of the Crown and better securing the rights and liberties of the subjects" (cited in Stephenson and Marcham, 1937, p.610). Protection of this liberty was the sacred, illimitable obligation of those who inherited the benefits of the Revolution and those who were their political representatives (see Lord Shelburne cited in Fitzmaurice, 1912, p.336; Burke, 1935, pp.29-30; Burke cited in Pocock, 1960, p.127).