New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1908-11-18
EDMUND BURKE.
His Genius, Characteristics and Place
TN History.
From The London Times.

From The London Times
Mr. whitelaw Reid. unwilling commemorative
sion to make some interesting remarks upon the
great and lasting reputation OF that Statesman nam N
the eighteenth centuryTand there were among among
smith and Johnsonhe spoke of Burke as the
greatest ard he quoted Grep b aGnn6se
would be futile to discuss the question whether a
great as man Of action ike Nelson On the
hand we have the saying of Wolfe himself great tt
Gray's "Elegy' than storm the heights Of abraham;
thinks more highly of soldier than of any man in
a sedentary profession Both no d9ubt. aQ19 9
most those powers which were most different IRON ON
their own But though there is no pront to re g9t
rom any Gomparson between Burke ana any s9 p.
less Of Of action than other great states
SPP9nt}caP poiif,cian Mr. Wbiteaw Reid compared
teal politics was like Burke. of letters, who
spoke as well as he wrote even better. Injustice
has been done to Cicero by Mommsen and others,
because he could not do what he was not born 70
do he COULD not manage men or eontr9i syent5;
revolution. he. too would have failed like Ci I,y
and been derded by the historians Tho , jugs s :
more fortunate than Cicero both because revolution
stayed the other side of the Channel and because
the ideas natural TO his mind of peculiar value
TO his own age and the Immediate future. o,o,,z,-
ton becomes NECESSARY in every kind of activity
The Parliamentary statesman has no time to oTg a
win diffuse them through the world and transmit
the professional thinker as Pitt and Fox left It to
Burke But the unique greatness OF BURKE eof iS
9 sp ADDED no TO the expression Of his ideas
ture He was in his own day blamed for 6elg b 59f
it is sometimes said that Burke would never DO for
suit his own House of Commons that he was called
its dinner bell But we feel that this eloquence
rather 1nan 70 Ene n rafbr than read it. Its
cada EIa NJ V.
with very voice of the author There is the pas
s9R of the and f 6n Ee a
Burkes supreme eminence consists In this, that ne
could wing his ideas with this passion Of the coca
sion and yet empty them of none OF their Weigm mt
ike great dramatist whose finest poetry about
R BIS Bot LIE Ms frso Reid quoss dSHf q
speare was to the moral World and he confesses
that it has often perplexed him. Probably Grenvile
FoTed fnn5 oTa qFkf not With Poe With those
great and Ideas 4 Which oat give ys to P0 20 e
and which make men ready TO die for political
practice. and both can be made unattTaetve by
those who think Of nothing but practice It IS the
practice by revealing its significance, so that we
may not lose sight of eternal truths in the business
Burke dealt with politics as great artist deals
with his subject matter He made them significant
and romantic, and like the greatest artists, with
t or no ba ice 9a ne a az in the work
of government. That not his business His
society and TO express clearly and eloquently all
those hopes for the future Of the world that In MS
time We're first beginning to mould the policies Of
statesmen. But If he had been only writer he
could not have swayed men as he did sway them
either in his time or in the future Nor could
he have given 20 his hopes and ideas that precise
and definite application which they took in the
course of Parliamentary debates. Mr.. Reid asks
What could be terser: what could go more directly
like an arrow the heart of the matter In hand.
than many of the epigrammaatic sentences that
sprinkle almost every page Of his speeches. This
terseness and drectness he got from speaking upon
particular occasions and Of the chief glortes OF
his style is the IN which terseness con trasts
and alternates with large and sweeping eloquence
There is the great idea, the burning enthusiasm,
and then follows the particular application
pressed in sharp and homely words. And these
words are still Informed by the idea and the
thusiasm, which carried away in mems minds,
together with the words themselves. Thus Burke
is remembered more than writer's whose eloquence
came only through the pen, and more than speak
who only concerned with the particular oc-
cason of their. elOquence. There Is something of
the force of action in his words; we know that they
helped make history they were spoken, and
that they provoked by history as It happened:
and the time they have also the weight of
philosophy and general truth.