Burke

Edmund, a British orator and statesman; born in Dublin, Ireland, Jan. 12, 1729. The first speech of Burke in Parliament was on the Grenville Stamp Act; and it was at his advice that the Rocking ham administration took the middle and undecided course of repealing the act, and pa ing a law declaratory of the right of Great Britain to tax the American colonies. This ministry was soon di olved to make room for a new cabinet under Pitt. He opposed the ministerial measures antecedent and consequent to the American war; and the whole powers of his eloquence were exerted first to prevent, and then to heal the fatal breach between the mother country and her colonies. In 1774 he was chosen member for Bristol, and for the next eight years Fox warmly supported him in his opposition to Lord North’s administration. In 1778 he delivered his famous speech against the employment of the Indians in the American war. The last great act of his political life was his condemnation of the French Revolution. He died July 9, 1797.