The Sun.
London, England, 1869-05-20 00:00:00

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THE • REV. W. IL MILLBURN ON AARON
BURR.

(From Ike Anglo-American Times.)

We had the pleasure only to bear one of the three
lectures delivered by the Rev. W. H. Milburn this
week in the Egyptian Hall, that " On the Life arid
Character of Aaron Burr." Mr. Milburn, taking a
gentleman's arm, walked to -his place on the plat-
form with that bold, fearless tread by which the
blind so often astonish those who see, and planted
himself behind a table. Any one then entering the
ha!l would have beheld a fine-looking, heavy man
standing firmly on his feet apparently, taking a sur-
vey of his audience, but no idea would have crossed
his mind that the speaker was sightless. His action is
slight, but eppropriate and expressive ; his voice
deep-to.ied and melodious, perhaps showing too
plainly the cultivation, which, we think, is the fault
of his style, the study being too evidently manifested,
for no effect can equal that produced by the ap-
appearance of simplicity an l spontanecus thought.
Taking, then, the narrative as an elaborate biogra-
phy of Aaron Burr, it is, in a word, masterly. The
lecturer never forgets the deep moral lesson incul-
cated which veins it, as silver veins a Nevad ► hill.
Ilia pictures were bright and true to life; his anti-
thesis forcible, rising into the sublime in his contrast
between the character of Aaron Burr and Alexander
Hamilton, who, he says, was America's purest poli-
tician and greatest statesman. It is noteworthy
that Mr. Milburn has not chosen a character to pane-
gerize, as biographists generally do. He pronounces
Aaron Burr to have been as bad a man as his vic-
tim, Alexander Hamilton, was good. Both were
soldiers of the revolutionary war ; both early
in life the friends, and on the staff, of Wash-
ington; but the " Father of his Country," ab-
horred immorality, and, dismissing Colonel Burr,
became warmly attached to General Hamilton. The
•
career of the two frequently brought them into con-
flict. If every-politieian is not a lawyer in, the
States, every lawyer is a politician, and General
Hamilton and Colonel Burr, both officers who had
distinguished themselves in the revolutionary cam-
paigns, rose to fame at the bar of the Empire State,
Empire then as now. Both were leaders of the
opposite political factions ; both constantly met as
the counsel of contending adversaries. Aaron Burr
managed skilfully to combine the warring sections
of the Republican party of that.day, and thereby
achieved so signal a success that the vote cast for
Mr. Jefferson for the Presidency did not excee I
that for himself, while both were in overwhelming
majority to the candidates of the opposition. In
those days he for whom the Electoral College had
cast most votes became President, and the Vice-
President was the man who stood next ; therefore
the question the tie created was which was to be
President and which vice-President. This was de-
cided by Alexander Hamilton, who, believing in the.
patriotism of Jefferson and the selfishness of Aaron
Burr, induced his party to support the election of
the former. In doing so, General Hamilton sealed
his doom, for he added fuel to the fire of hatred
fiercely burning in Burr's bosom, and fixed the re-
solve of one who knew no mercy, nor fear, to kill
him. At a time when the code of honour prevailed
there was no difficulty and little danger in achieving
his purpose, for Aaron Burr was an accomplished
shot, and Hamilton, however deeply impressed with
the wickedness of the course sanctioned by society,
was compelled as a soldier to follow it, and fell at
the first shot on a platform overlooking the North
River and New York City, reeking with the blood
of former victims. This was the crisis of Aaron
Burr's career, and it is here the lecturer soars into
eloquence. The character of Alexander Hamilton
is, he thinks, as yet but little understood and ap-
preciated by his countrymen. Of all his contem-
poraries only one excelled him, and that was Ed-
mund Burke, yet this great man was foully slain by
a vile hand, though in accordance with the rules of
" honour." But the rules of honour did not shield
Aaron Burr from a nation's wrath and the Divine
displeasure. From the day when America's greatest
I statesman died in agony by the hand of him who
was then luxuriating in his bath, enjoying a French
novel to that of his own death. Aaron Burr's course
was steadily downwards ; down from the pinnacle of
the Vice-Pesidency, whereon he stood, to a pauper's
grave. The lecturer himself buried him, and the
undertaker who had requested his attendance said
that of the hundreds he had interred he had never
seen a case of more abject poverty. Yet this was
the end of a man singularly gifted by nature, whose
hand was at one time on the chair of the Chief Ma-
gistracy, whose seat for a term was that of the Vice-
President, and who actually organized an expedi-
tion to wrest Mexico from the Spaniards, and to
establish himself as Emperor in the Halls of the
Montezumas. The lecturer gives a touching picture
of the only love that ever entered that heart of
stone—his daughter, and her end. The death of
her only child, and her own loss at sea following
swiftly after, enable him to work up his picture to
the grand climax of Aaron Burr's last moments—
solitary and alone ; stripped, bare of love, of wealth,
of character ; as fine a moral, as fine a picture, as
ever pen sketched or brush painted. We must not
omit a remark, it may be a casual one, of the lec-
turer. Aar, n Burr, the wicked, commanded an
equal vote with the patriot Jefferson ; and Alexan-
der Hamilton, the good, could not have secured
votes sufficient to make him town constable, yet
there lived in his day but one man superior to him.
Does representation by the people return the best