The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-07-08
TODAY IN HISTORY
Death OF the "Shakespeare of English
Oratory."
FRIDAY, JULY 8, 1910.

Burke, the greatest OF English orators,
there hangs a veil that has never been
lifted. The most reasonable opinion as
to his birth fixes that event as occurring
ut Dublin on january II, 1929, His father
was Protestant. an attorney, his mother
Catholic, by the name Of Magic; he
had at least one sister, Mrs, French,
from whom the existing representatives
OF Burkes family are descended. and two
brothers, one younger and another older
school at kildare. Later Edmund at
tended Trinity college, when Goldsmith
was student there, and like him, at
tained no academic distinction.
Burke then studied law at the Tenn
pie. in London, was said to have been
q favored admircr of Peg Whonington
and TO have made a mysterious visit 10
this country. and In 1T76 published; after
treatise on ''The Sublime and Beautiful.
For some time he made a little money
from his literary ventures and then got
panying William Gerald Hamilton TO Ire
land, when the latter was secretary Tor
that country.
Later Burke quarreled with Hamilton
and accepted the position OF secretary
to the Marquis OF Rockingham, when that
peer WAS made prime minister. Shortly
thereafter Burke defended the course Of
colonies so ably as to attract the atten-
tiou OF the whole Wbig party. and from
that time until 1890 he was one of the
party's chief men.
DR.. Nugent of Bath, and during the years
Of parliamentary opposition, which now
came upon him, he continued to live In
manner which has excited not little
suspicion, buying an estate at Beacons-
field which was worth at least S2500 a
year. He loved art and filled this house
with treasures, at the same time keeping
up. among all his political preoccupa-
tions an intimacy with Goldsmith. Car
rick and Johnson and the club at the
famous Turks Head. himself producing
from time to time a work upon some .po-
liical subject, such as that masterpiece
OF It's kind, the Thoughts on the Cause
of the Present Discomfort"
When Lord North became head Of the
government In ITO he brought about all
the disasters which Burke had foretold
and for the first six years OF this min
istry Burke was the man who kept the
Whig party together: fighting for them
fought for before. Returned as a repre-
sentative OF Bristol, then the second city
In the kingdom, he struggled hard for the
Of Justice in the msnagemenes eo6 OF
cil!ation" has long since become a clas-
sic. like all his work. lacking only In
polish and style.
When the Wings came again into
power at the time Of the surrender Of
CORVALLIS, Burlke's influence, OF course.
became still greater. In all the leglsla-
ton regarding the Indian bill he took
| an important part. and finally In the trial
OF Warren Hastings. he conducted what
was. In many respects, the greatest state
affair Of his career and what included
the greatest OF all his speeches. The
narrative OF the crimes OF Hastings, as
Macauley says, made Burke's blood boil
and never during all his part in the
fourteen weary years Of the trial did his
energy cease or his righteous anlmoSlty
lessen in intensity.
In 1890 Burke startled many Of his
friends by the publication Of his RE
windham wrote of him: "What shall be
said OF the state of things, when 1t Is
remembered that the writer is man de-
cried. prosecuted and prescribed. not be.
ing much valued in his own party. and
by half the nation considered as little
And. indeed. the electrified country
nearly justified these statements. There
was at once an end OF his political
friendships and from that day his pub
lie career may be said to have be-
gun to decline. He was partially re,
came to an end. but In 1894 he took a
formal leave OF parliament, and refusing
n peerage, would accept only pension
OF $4,000. He died on July s, 1877
On July s, 1909, occurred the famous
battle of Pultowa in Russia; 1t is the
date Of the arrival of the French fleet
under DEstaIng at the mouth of the
Delaware in 1878, and that the Jeanette
Arctic expedition smiled from San Fran"
cisco in 1879 1t Is the birthday of Jean
de la Fontaine. the celebrated fabulist
(17oOl: Admiral William Howard Allen.
noted naval officer (17eO: Robert K
Scott southern soldier and statesman
G826): and William V, Moody, the Amer