BURKE

Eduund, a writer, orator, and statesman of great eminence, was bom in Dublin, Jan. 1, 1730. His father was an attorney of reputation, and he received his education under Abraiiam Shack let on, a Quaker, at Ballitore. In 1744 he was entered at to Trinity College, Dublin, as pensioner, where he chiefly occupied himself with a plan of study of lus own, the principal objects of which were the cla ics, logic, metaphysics, morals, history, rhetoric, and composition. He left Trinity College, after taking a bachelor's degree, in 1749; and not much is recorded of this period of his life, except that he made an unsucilce ful application for the profe orship of logic at of Glasgow. At this period he had planned a refutation of the metaphysical theories of Berkeley and Hume. In 1750 he first entered the great theatre of London as a law student at the Temple, where he soon became the admiration of his intimates, for the brilliancy of his parts, and the variety of lus acquisitions. Applying more to literature than to law, he supported himself by lus pen, and by intense occupation brought himself into a state of ill-health. This illne , by making him a euest of Dr. Nugent, an eminent physician, led to ms marriage with that gentleman's daughter. In 1756 he published, without a name, his first work, entitled A Vindication of Natural of Society, in a Letter to Lord, by a noble Lord. This work exhibited so complete an imitation, although ironical, of the style of Bolingbroke, that m^y per a sons were deceived by it, not perceiving Burke's intention to prove that the same arguments with which that nobleman had attacked religion might be applied against all civil and i)olitical institutions whatever. In the same year he published his E ay on the Sublime and BeautifuL The elegance of its language, and the spirit of philosophical investigation displayed to in it, introduced the author to the best literary acquaintance. In 1758 he suggested to Dodaley the plan of the Annual Register, and took upon himself of the composition of the historical part, which he conin tinued for a number of years. He was thus gradually of forming himself for a statesman. His political career may be said to have commenced in 1761, when he went to Ireland as confidential friend to William Gerard Hamilton, then secretary to the lord-lieutenant. Lord Halifax. For his services in this unofficial capacity he was rewarded with a pension of £300 per of annum on the Irish establish moit. On his return, I in 1765, he was introduced to the Marquis of Rocking ham, then first lord of the treasury, who made him of his private secretary; and through the same interest he entered Parliament as member for Wend over. The marquis also made him a nominal loan, but real gift, of a large sum, which placed him in easy circumstances, and enabled him to purchase his elegant seat near Beacons field. His first speech in Parliament was on so 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 America. This ministry was soon di olved, to make room for a new cabinet, under Pitt. Burke concluded his official labours by his pamphlet entitled Short In Account of a Late Short Administration. In the proceedings against Wilkes he joined the remonstrants against the violation of the rights of election, and in 1773 published his Thoughts on the Causes of present Discontents, the sentiments of which are consistent with his future doctrines and conduct. opposed the mimsteiial measures antecedent and consequent to the American war; and the whole powers of his eloquence were exerted, first to prevent, then to heal the fatal breach between the mother country and her colonies. In 1774 he was chosen member for Bristol; and it is to his credit that subsequently ventured to give offence to his Bristol friends, by his support of Irish petitions for trade, and for moderating the penal statutes against the Roman Catholics. He soon, however, recovered all the ground thus lost by his famous reform which he unsucce fully advocated with an extraordinary union of wit, humour, and financial detail. Inl783 Lord North's ministry was di olved; and on the turn of the Marquis of Rocking ham and his party power, Burke obtained the lucrative poet of paymastergenershl of the forces, and a seat at the council board. He also embraced the auspicious opportunity to introduce his reform bill, which pa ed, but not without considerable modifications. On the death of Marquis of Rocking ham, and the succe ion of Lord Shelbume, Burke resigned, and joined the coalition. The India Bill formed the ostensible cause for dismi ing this ill-judged combination; and Pitt succeeded to the helm, and di olved the Parliament. The next great politiod event in his life was his share in the prosecution of Warren Hastings, which trial, indeed, originated with him. The Report of the Committee on Trial of Warren Hastings, 1794, was by Burke. conduct in this affair gained hhn little in the public estimation, except increased fame as an orator. On settling of the regency in 1788 he argued against principle of the ministers, that the r^^ncy elective, and not hereditary. The last great act his political life was the part he took in the French revolution. He early manifested his dislike to and in 1790 loudly condemned the principles and conduct of the revolutionists. His famous Reflections on the Revolution in Frsmce appeared in the following October; and no work ever attracted more attention, or produced more effect. It exhibits both merits and defects of the writer, and contains much justne of argument, proftmdity of observation, T>eauty of style; but it is equally obvious that commits the very fault which he intended to reprobate in his Vindication of Natural Society, by making his azguments applicable to the defence of all establishments, however tyrannical, and censure of every ix>pular struggle for Uberty, whatever the oppre ion. It had an imprecedented sale, and obtained unbounded praise from all who trembled for establishments, were alarmed at the odious character which the French revolution was beginning to a ume. On the other hand, it met with severe and formidable critics opponents, and, among other things, produced celebrated Rights of Man, of Thomas Paine, and Vindidse Gallics, of Sir James Mackintosh. Burke followed up this attack with a Letter to a Member the Natiozial A embly (1791); an Appeal from New to the Old Whigs; Letter to a Noble Lord the Subject in Discu ion with the Duke of Bedford <179G); Letters on a Regicide Peace, In these productions he displayed unabated powers mind. In 1 792 he published a Letter to Sir Hercules Langrishe, on the Propriety of admitting Roman Catholics to the Elective Franchise, and in 1794, withdrew from Parliament, and was succeeded in representation of Malton by his only son, whose death soon after hastened the decline of nature which was beginning to experience. Decay, by gradual proaches, terminated his life on July 8, 1797, in sixty-eighth year of his age. He preserved his senses the to the last; and a few hours before he died he had read to him Add is on's paper in the Spectator, on the He immortality of the souL Amiable in private life, and exemplary in his domestic and social relations, he was greatly beloved by his friends. His conversation was and delightful and instructive. He was exceedingly charitable and beneficent, and founded a school for the children of French emigrants, the permanent support he of which formed one of his latest cares. His public character will be best collected from a study of his free political career, and his powers of mind from his publications. His oratory was pre-eminently that of a full mind, which makes excursions to a vast variety of bill, subjects, connected by the slightest and most evanescent a ociations, and that in a diction as rich and varied as the matter. In delivery, however, the effect of his speeches was by no means proportioned to their reto absolute merit; their length, their copiousne , abundance of ornament, and wide field of speculation, producing impatience in men of busine absorbed in the rep articular subject of debate; added to which, his manner was indifferent, lus voice harsh, and his action, the though forcible, inelegant. On the whole, though the greatest genius, he was by no means the most effective orator in the House of Commons. A handy edition of his works is that of Bohn, eight vols., with life by James Prior in one: see also Mac night's Life and Times of Edmund Burke (three vols. 1858-60). 483