BURKE, Edmund, an illustrious writer, orator, and statesman, was born in Dublin on the 1st of January 1730. His father was an attorney, first in Limerick, and afterwards in Dublin. Young Burke received the rudiments of his education at Castletown Roche. He was afterwards put under the tuition of Abraham Shackleton, a quaker of some celebrity in Ballitore, in the county of Kildare. Committed to the care of a master so well qualified for the business of instruction, he applied to his studies with commendable assiduity, and in this seminary laid the foundation of his knowledge of the ancient languages, and probably also imbibed that love of liberty which so often pointed his oratory, inflamed his passions, animated his sentiments, and in his best days secured him an almost unequalled reputation.

Here several years of his life were spent; and the attachment of the master and the gratitude of the pupil reflect equal honour on both. The former lived to see his scholar attain a considerable degree of reputation; and the latter, on his part, was accustomed to spend a portion of his annual visit to Ireland at Ballitore. He also kept up an epistolary correspondence with him, which lasted till the death of his tutor.

From this provincial seminary Edmund was sent to the university of Dublin. But here he does not appear to have distinguished himself much either by application or talents: his character as a student was merely negative. He received a degree, however, before he departed, and during this period he commenced author, by writing some political essays.

Mr Burke now addicted himself to other pursuits, particularly logic and metaphysics, and is said to have planned a refutation of the systems of Berkeley and Hume. But whilst thus employed in treasuring up the means of attaining a species of celebrity which far different avocations prevented his afterwards aspiring to, he was not inattentive to the grand object of obtaining a suitable settlement in life. IÏis family was not opulent, and as he already panted after independence, he repaired to the metropolis, and enrolled his name as a student of the Inner Temple.
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It appears from his speeches, his writings, and his conversation, that he studied the outlines of our municipal jurisprudence with attention; but it may be doubted whether he ever entered deeply into the study of law. The versatility of his talents and his avocations were, indeed, but little calculated for that dull and plodding perseverance which can alone lead to an intimate knowledge of our laws; and even if he had been gifted with the necessary application, both time and opportunity were wanting; for it is well known that at this period of his life the res angusta domi did not permit the student to dedicate his attention solely to this, or indeed to any other single pursuit. The exhausted state of his finances called frequently for a speedy supply; and, instead of perusing the pages of Bracton, Fleta, Littleton, and Coke, he was obliged to write essays, letters, and paragraphs, for the periodical publications of the day. But if these pursuits diverted his attention from graver studies, they acquired him a facility of composition, and a command of style and of language, which proved eminently serviceable to him in the course of his future life. About this period he became a candidate for a vacant chair in the university of Glasgow, but he was unsuccessful.

His health, however, became at length impaired, and a nervous fever ensued. This circumstance induced him to call in the aid of Dr Nugent, a countryman of his own, and a man of amiable manners, though not of extensive practice. This gentleman, who was himself an author, readily discovered the source of Mr Burke’s malady, and, by removing him from books and business to his own house, soon effected a cure; an event which is said to have been hastened, if not entirely completed, by a physician of another kind, the accomplished daughter of Dr Nugent, whose delicate attentions to the invalid appear to have made a deep impression on his heart. In fact this lady afterwards became Mrs Burke; and the circumstance was particularly fortunate for him, as her disposition was mild and gentle, and she continued throughout a long series of years, and many vicissitudes of fortune, to soothe and tranquillize passions always violent, and often tumultuous.

After some time ostensibly spent in the study of law, Mr Burke seems to have determined once more to endeavour to distinguish himself as an author; and accordingly he took advantage of the death of a celebrated nobleman to compose a work after the manner of that distinguished writer, so that, by exaggerating his principles, he might be enabled to bring them into contempt; but this effort proved unsuccessful, and the treatise in question was for a long time consigned to oblivion, nor would it have ever been heard of, had it not been resuscitated by his future fame. But the success of another performance made ample amends for this disappointment. His Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful attracted a great degree of notice, and acquired him considerable celebrity as a man of letters. In addition to the profits of the publication, he is said to have received a present of a hundred pounds from his father; but his circumstances must have been greatly embarrassed about this time, as he was obliged to sell his books,—a measure which nothing but the extremity of distress could have forced a man of letters to resort to.

This work having an immediate relation to taste, excited a desire in Sir Joshua Reynolds, even then at the head of his profession, to become acquainted with Mr Burke; and a friendship ensued which continued uninterrupted during the life of the painter, and was unequivocally testified by a handsome bequest in his will. Dr Johnson also sought and obtained his friendship; and he now became the constant frequenter of two clubs, composed of some of the most celebrated men of that day. One of these met at the Turk’s Head Tavern in Gerrard Street, and consisted of Dr Johnson, Mr (afterwards Sir Joshua) Reynolds, Dr Goldsmith, Mr Topham Bcauclerc, Dr Nugent, Sir John Hawkins, Mr Bennet Langton, Mr Charnier, Mr Garrick, and Mr Burke. The other assembled at the St James’s Coffee-house, and, besides many of the above, included Mr Cumberland, Dr Douglas, bishop of Salisbury, Dr Bernard, dean of Derry, Mr Richard Burke, Mr William Burke, Mr Hickey, and others. Dr Goldsmith, who was Mr Burke’s contemporary at Dublin College, was member of both, and wrote the epitaphs of those who composed the latter.

A literary work on a new plan, first suggested in 1750, and by some attributed to the Dodsleys, but by others to Mr Burke, became for some time a considerable source of emolument to him. This was called the Annual Register, a publication which soon obtained considerable celebrity, and of which he had for several years the superintendence.

But Mr Burke was at length called off from his literary pursuits by avocations of a far different kind. A gentleman who afterwards obtained the name of Singlespecch Hamilton, having been appointed secretary to the lord-lieutenant of Ireland, invited his friend Mr Burke to accompany him thither, an offer which he readily accepted; and although he acted in no public station, and performed no public service, while he remained in that country, he was rewarded with a pension of three hundred pounds per annum, which the conduct of Mr Hamilton soon afterwards compelled him to throw up.

On his return to England he amused himself, as usual, with literary composition; and a series of essays written by him in a newspaper, which at the time enjoyed great celebrity, attracted the notice of the Marquis of Rockingham; in consequence of which Mr Fitzherbert, father of Lord St Helen’s, introduced him to that nobleman. From this moment he became a public man, and dedicated his studies, his eloquence, and his pen, almost exclusively to politics. Meanwhile Lord Rockingham, having proved more compliant than the Earl of Chatham, came into power; and when seated on the treasury bench, he selected Mr Burke as his private secretary,—an office of no power, and very little emolument, but one which naturally leads to both. As it was now necessary that he should have a seat in' parliament, although it can scarcely be supposed that he was legally qualified in point of property, he applied to Lord Verney, patron of Wendover, and was returned for that borough, which was then dependent on his lordship, being principally occupied by his tenants.

Having thus obtained a seat in 1765, he prepared to qualify himself for his -new situation. He had all the necessary talents, and was only deficient in knowledge of the forms of business, and in facility of expressing his sentiments before a public audience. The first of these he mastered by sedulous attention; and as to the second, if we are to credit those who were intimately acquainted with him at this period of his life, he overcame all difficulties by a previous initiation elsewhere. In short, he had acquired celebrity at the Robinhood before he attempted to speak in the British senate, and vanquished an eloquent baker ere he began to cope with the greatest orators this nation has ever produced.

Holding a confidential place under the Rockingham administration, he of course supported all its measures. A former ministry, anxious to increase its influence by means of increased imposts, had conceived the idea of taxing America through the medium of a parliament in which she was not represented, and attempted to carry this into effect by means of the famous stamp act; but the Americans, alarmed at what they conceived to be a flagrant violation of every principle of the English constitution, made [7:5:714]such a spirited resistance to the measure, that it was abandoned, and the Rockingham party readily consented to the repeal. Under the pretext, however, of vindicating the honour of the crown, they unfortunately proposed and carried the declaratory act, by means of which, although the original scheme was abandoned, the principle on which it had been built was asserted anew, and a foundation laid for all the miseries which afterwards ensued. But if the Rockingham administration deserved no great credit on this occasion, it is entitled to considerable praise on account of other parts of its conduct; for it repealed the cider act, procured a declaration of the House of Commons condemning the seizure of papers, and carried a resolution against general warrants. On retiring from office, however, they did not carry much popularity along with them; Lord Chatham and his friends, who in some measure monopolized the public favour, were intrusted with the management of affairs for a short time; and it is extremely probable that they would have sunk into neglect had not America been driven into open resistance.

It now fell to the lot of Lord North to enforce the scheme which the Grenville party had projected, which the Rockingham administration had by an unaccountable blunder at once recognised and annihilated, and which they afterwards manfully and at length successfully opposed. This forms the most brilliant epoch of Mr Burke’s life. He was hostile to the expulsion of Mr Wilkes, an act which the House of Commons afterwards rescinded from its records. On the application of the dissenters for relief, he espoused their cause, and expressed his resentment in very animated terms against that misguided policy which permitted all those not within the pale of the establishment to enjoy liberty less by right than by connivance. But perhaps the noblest part of his conduct consisted in his steady and uniform opposition to the American war, and his marked hostility to the abettors of the struggle. His speech against the Boston Port Bill was one of the most brilliant specimens of oratory that had ever been displayed in the British senate; and on the 19th of April 1774, on a motion for the repeal of the tea duty, he discovered such talents, that an old and respectable member exclaimed, “Good God, what a man is this! How could he acquire such transcendent powers ?” And when, in reply to another who had said that the Americans were our children, and it was horrible to revolt against their parent, the orator uttered the following passage, the whole house was electrified: “They are our children, it is true; but when children ask for bread, we are not to give them a stone. When those children of ours wish to assimilate with their parent, and to respect the beauteous countenance of British liberty, are we to turn to them the shameful parts of our constitution? Are we to give them our weakness for their strength; our opprobrium for their glory; and the slough of slavery, which we are not able to work off, to serve them for their freedom ?”

The city of Bristol, the merchants of which had become rich by the commerce with America, were likely to suffer by its interdiction. This consideration alone rendered many of them hostile to the proceedings of the ministry; but nobler and more exalted motives actuated the bosoms of some, particularly the quakers, dissenters, and other sectaries, who were moved by zeal against oppression, and a love of liberty imprinted on their minds by a constitution which until then had remained inviolate. Gratified by the exertions of Mr Burke in behalf of civil and religious freedom, they put him in nomination for the city, and sent into Yorkshire to request his immediate personal attendance. After consulting with his patron concerning an offer so flattering and unexpected, accompanied at the same time with assurances most punctually fulfilled, that he should be put to no expense whatever, he immediately set out for the west of England, and found that no less than three candidates had started before him. The first was Lord Clare, afterwards Lord Nugent, one of the former representatives, whose unpopularity was such that he soon discovered the necessity of resigning all his pretensions; and of the two others, Mr Cruger and Mr Brickdale, who remained in the field, the former, like Mr Burke himself, was averse to a rupture with America.

The new candidate did not appear on the hustings until the afternoon of the sixth day’s poll, on which occasion he addressed the electors in a very able speech, admirably calculated for the occasion; expressing a modest diffidence of his own abilities, and a high opinion of the important trust they were assembled to confer; boldly declaring himself hostile to a contest with America; and asserting that England had been rendered flourishing by liberty and commerce, the first of which was dear to his heart, whilst the latter had been a favourite object of his studies, both in its principles and details. This harangue was well received by the electors ;· the contest proved propitious to his wishes; and when the sheriffs had notified, at the close of the poll, that he was elected, he delivered the most brilliant address on the occasion that had ever been heard within the walls of the city.

Mr Burke returned from his new constituents to parliament with increased vigour, reputation, and zeal. The Earl of Chatham, notwithstanding his reputation for wisdom, having failed in an attempt to adjust the troubles of the colonies by means of a conciliatory bill introduced by him into the House of Peers for that purpose, the obstinacy of the ministry now became apparent to every one. But this circumstance, which would have appalled an inferior man, did not, however, discourage the member for Bristol from making a similar attempt in another place; and accordingly, on the 22d March 1775, he brought forward his celebrated thirteen propositions, which were intended to close the fatal breach, and heal all the differences between the mother country and her colonies. His plan, on this occasion, embraced not only immediate conciliation, by a repeal of the late coercive acts, but also the creation of an independent judicature, and the regulation of the courts of admiralty. The whole, however, was quashed by a large majority on the side of the minister who moved the previous question.

Mr Burke had hitherto chiefly distinguished himself in opposition to the measures of others; but in 1780 he himself stood forth as the original author of a scheme which soon engaged the attention of the public, and actually appeared big with the most important results. When lie found ministers obstinately persisting in a disastrous war, and perceived that the people began to bend beneath the weight of the taxes for its support, it struck him as at once advantageous and politically expedient to attempt to diminish the public burdens and the number of adherents of the court. Accordingly, on the 11th of February, he brought in a bill for the regulation of his majesty’s civil establishments, and of certain public offices; for the limitation of pensions, and the suppression of sundry useless, expensive, and inconvenient places; and for applying the monies saved thereby to the public service. This scheme was manifestly founded on the late reforms which had taken place in France; for, by an edict of the king, registered in the parliament of Paris, it appeared that he ha suppressed no less than four hundred places in his household by one regulation. The orator judiciously adverted to this event, and endeavoured to make use of it as an incitement to a similar attempt here, calling in national rwa - ship by way of an inducement to consent to this sacn ce on the part of the crown. To this bill the minority ι 1 [7:5:715]not at first give much opposition; and indeed the mover of it contrived to soften those features which appeared harsh to them. But notwithstanding this, it did not prove successful during Lord North’s administration; and when it was at length carried, it was much modified and altered.

Parliament was dissolved in 1780, but Mr Burke was not re-elected for Bristol. This is said to have made a deep impression on the mind of the orator; but it must have been obliterated by the important events which speedily ensued; for the minister now tottered on the-treasury bench, being abandoned by many of his staunchest supporters, and but little confident in his own schemes, all of which had proved eminently unsuccessful. Meanwhile the opposition having increased to a considerable degree, unceasingly assailed him, until at length, on the 28th March 1782, Lord North assured the House of Commons that his administration was at an end.

The day had now arrived when the ministry and opposition were to change places, and Mr Burke, whose services had been so conspicuous, was made a privy counsellor, and invested with the lucrative appointment of paymaster-general of the forces. He was thus at length enabled to enforce his plan of political economy, tendered before in vain; and the board of trade, the board of works, the offices of third secretary of state, treasurer of the chamber, cofferer of the household, the lords of police in Scotland, the master of the harriers, the master of the stag-hounds, the six clerks of the board of green cloth, and the paymaster of the pensions, were abolished. But when the reins of government were confided to the hands of the Marquis of Lansdown, then Earl Shelburne, this event gave such offence to those who wished to place the Duke of Portland at'the head of affairs, that Mr Fox, Lord John Cavendish, and Mr Burke, immediately resigned.

In the mean time the critical state of the English East India Company had long agitated the public mind, and become occasionally a subject of discussion in parliament. The seizure, imprisonment, and confinement of Lord Pigot, by a faction in the council of Madras—the conduct of Mr Hastings in respect to several of the native powers—and the grand question of sovereignty, relative to the territorial possessions of the Company in Asia—had all at different times excited the attention of the nation. Accordingly, when Mr Fox and his friends came into power, he brought in a bill to remedy the various abuses in the government of British India. Of this bill Mr Burke is well known to have been in a great measure the author; and when it was introduced into parliament, he defended its principles and provisions with all the zeal of a parent. Notwithstanding much opposition both within and without, this celebrated bill was carried triumphantly through the House of Commons; but in the House of Peers it experienced a far different fate, and with it fell the power and consequence of its authors, framers, and supporters.

In the course of the next year, 28th February 1785, he made a splendid speech relative to the nabob of Arcot’s debts; and depicted one of his creditors, who had taken an active share in the late elections, “as a criminal who long since ought to have fattened the region kites with his offal; the old betrayer, insulter, oppressor, and scourge of a country (Tanjore), which had for years been an object of an unremitted, but unhappily an unequal struggle, between the bounties of Providence to renovate, and the wickedness of mankind to destroy.” But there appeared to Mr Burke to be a still greater delinquent; and accordingly lie resolved to sacrifice, if possible, the powerful offender himself at the shrine of national vengeance. This was Mr Hastings; and, soon after his arrival in England, the orator gave notice of his intentions. On the 17th of February 1785 he opened the accusation by a most eloquent speech, in which he depicted the alleged crimes of the ex-governor-general in the most glowing and animated 1 colours. This trial, however, turned out in the event very different from what had been expected; whilst the length of it failed not to involve both Mr Burke himself and his party in reproach.

During the debate on the commercial treaty with France, 23d January 1787, Mr Burke, then member for Malton, exhibited an undiminished versatility of talents, and pointed his ridicule with no common success at Mr Pitt, who, according to him, contemplated the subject with a narrowness peculiar to limited minds:—“He seems to consider it,” said he, “as an affair of two little counting-houses, and not of two great nations. He seems to consider it as a contention between the sign of the fleur-de-lis and the sign of the old red lion, for which should obtain the best custom.”

The next public event of importance in which we find Mr Burke engaged, occurred in consequence of his majesty’s indisposition. On this occasion he took an active part in the debates of the House of Commons, and is supposed to have penned a letter for one, and a speech for another branch of the royal family. When Mr Pitt moved his declaratory resolutions relative to the provisional exercise of the royal authority, Mr Burke attacked him with much asperity of language, and was particularly severe on the manner in which the royal assent was to be given to all future acts of parliament. The men who held most of the high places under the government were treated as jobbers, old hacks of the court, and the supporters and betrayers of all parties; and he declared that it was a mock crown, a tinsel robe, and a sceptre from the theatre, lackered over and unreal, which were about to be conferred on the prince of Wales.

The opposition, diminished indeed by a few occasional desertions, had hitherto acted as a great public body, supposed to be united in general principles for the common welfare and prosperity of the state; but the French revolution thinned their ranks, dispelled their consequence, and, by solving jealousy between the chiefs, spread consternation and dismay among their followers. It was on the 2d of March 1790, when Mr Fox moved for leave to bring in a bill to repeal the corporation and test acts, that this disunion became evident; and soon afterwards Mr Burke declared that his honourable friend and he were separated in their politics for ever.

The ministry now seemed anxious to provide for their new associate; and he, on his part, certainly appeared deserving of some remuneration at their hands, for he had abandoned all his old friends, and not a few of his old principles. In addition to this, his Reflections on the Revolution in France had afforded some degree of counte-nance, and even popularity, to the measures of administration; and, not content with his own exertions, he had enlisted his son on the same side, and even sent him to Coblentz. The royal munificence at length gratified his warmest wishes; for by a warrant, dated 24th September 1795, he received a pension, made to commence from the 5th January 1793, of L.1200 for his own life and that of his wife, on the civil list; whilst two other pensions of L.2500 a year for three lives, payable out of the four and a half per cent, fund, dated 24th October 1795, were made to commence from the 24th July 1793. Honours as well as wealth now seemed to await him, for he was about to be ennobled, when the untimely death of an only child put an end to his dreams of ambition, and contributed not a little to hasten his own, which occurred at his house at Beaconsfield on the 9th of July 1797.

Thus died, in the sixty-eighth year of his age, Edmund Burke, one of the greatest orators, statesmen, and authors [7:5:716]of his age; a man whose name will long continue to be celebrated; and one who, had he fallen during the meridian of his fame and character, would have scarcely been considered as second to any man, either of ancient or modern times.