ministry. The second, like the plan it proposed, was conciliatory; temperate an.1 respectful toward Lord North; designed to inform those who were ignorant of the real strength and feelings of America; instinct with the finest philosophy of man and of social institutions; and intended, if possible, to lead the House, through Lord North's scheme, into a final adjustment of the dispute on the true principles of English liberty. It is the most finished of Mr. Burke's speeches; and though it contains no passage of such vividness and force as the description of Hyder Ali in his speech on the Nabob of Arcot's debts, it will be read probably more than any of his other speeches, for the richness of its style and the lasting character of the instruction it conveys. Twenty years after, Mr. Fox said, in applying its principles to the subject of parliamentary reform, "Let gentlemen read this speech by day and meditate on it by night; let them peruse it again and again, study it, imprint it on their minds, impress it on their hearts-they will there learn that representation is the sovereign remedy for every evil." Both of Mr. Burke's speeches on America, indeed, are full of materials for the orator and the statesman. After all that has been written on the origin of our Revolution, there is nowhere else to be found so admirable a summation of the causes which produced it. They both deserve to be studied with the utmost diligence by every American scholar.

The next speech which Mr. Burke wrote out for publication was that on Economical Reform, delivered February 11th, 1780. The subject is one which has no interest for the American reader, and the speech is therefore omitted in this collection Like all his great efforts, it is distinguished by comprehensiveness of design and a minute knowledge of details. It has an exuberance of fancy, and too much of that coarse humor in which Mr. Burke sometimes indulged. His proposal was to reduce the expenses of the government by abolishing a large number of those sinecure effices which gave such enormous patronage to the Crown. But he had the most forraidable difficulties to encounter. Lord Talbot had previously attempted to reform & single class of expenses-those of the royal kitchen; but was foiled at the outset, as Mr. Burke tells us in his speech, "because the King's turnspit was a member of Parliament!" Against the present scheme were arrayed, not only every turnspit in the palace, but the keepers of the stag, buck, and fox hounds, in the shape of honorable members, or lords in waiting, together with scores of others among the nobility and gentry, who were living on offices now fallen into total disuse, which once ministered to the pleasure or safety of the monarch. As might be expected, the plan, though highly approved of by the public, was voted down in the House; and Mr Burke was left to console himself under his defeat with the popularity of his propo cals, and the praises bestowed on his eloquence.

Six years had now elapsed since Mr. Burke's election as member for Bristol; and he was suddenly called upon, by the dissolution of Parliament, September 1st, 1780, to appear again before his constituents, and solicit their favor. It was a difficult task. He had differed from them widely on several important subjects. Many had taken offense at the course he pursued, not only in respect to America, but to the opening of the Irish trade, and other measures affecting the interests of Bristol. On some of these points he had explained and justified his conduct, in three able pamphlets, to be found in his works, addressed to the Sheriffs of Bristol, or to citizens of that place. Still, there was a violent hostility to his re-election. He had disobeyed the instructions of his constituents; he had, as they imagined, sacrificed some of their most important interests; he had wounded their pride by neglecting to visit them since the previous election. Hence, when he arrived in town to commence his canvass, he found himself met by the most formidable opposition. It was on this occa sion that he came forward, September 6th, 1780, with his celebrated speech previous to the election at Bristol; "the best ever uttered on such an occasion, and per

rect.

EDMUND BURKE.

CALIFORM

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haps never excelled by any thing he ever delivered elsewhere." Sir Samuel Romilly speaks of it as "perhaps the best piece of oratory in our language."-Works, i., 213. Being addressed to plain men, it has less fancy, less of studied ornament and classical allusion, than his speeches in Parliament. It is more business-like, simple, and diAt the same time, it has all the higher qualities of Mr. Burke's mind; his thorough knowledge of human nature; his deep insight into political and social institutions; his enlarged views; his generous sentiments; his keen sensibility to the sufferings and wrongs of others; and his inflexible determination to do right, at all hazards and under all circumstances. Its manliness is, after all, its most striking characteristic. He had the strongest motives to shuffle, to evade, to conciliate But he met every thing full in the face. "I did not obey your instructions. No' I conformed to the instructions of truth and nature, and maintained your interests against your opinions, with a constancy that became me. A representative worthy of you, ought to be a person of stability. I am to look, indeed, to your opinions, but to such opinions as you and I must have five years hence. I was not to look to the flash of the day. I knew that you chose me, in my place, along with others, to be a pillar of the state, and not a weathercock on the top of the edifice, exalted for my levity and versatility, and of no use but to indicate the shiftings of every fashionable gale."

It was apparent, at the close of his speech, that although the main body of the Corporation and of the Dissenters were with him, together with much of the wealth and respectability of the city, there was no chance of his being re-elected. He therefore determined at once to decline the contest, and did so the 9th Sept., in a short speech, containing one of those touching reflections, embalmed in the most beautiful imagery, which occur so often in the writings of Mr. Burke. One of his competitors, Mr. Coombe, overcome by the excitement and agitation of the canvass, had died the preceding night. Such an event was indeed "an awful lesson against being too much troubled about any of the objects of ordinary ambition." Well might Mr. Burke say, in taking leave, "The worthy gentleman who has been snatched from us at the moment of the election, and in the middle of the contest, while his desires were as warm, and his hopes as eager as ours, has feelingly told us what shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue!”

Through the influence of Lord Rockingham, Mr. Burke was returned at once as member for Malton, and sat for this place during the remainder of his public life. "That humble borough," as Mr. Adolphus has remarked in his History of England, "gained by such a member an honor which the greatest commercial city might reasonably envy."

On the 27th of November, 1781, Mr. Burke, in animadverting on the King's speech, delivered one of his most eloquent philippics against the continuance of the American war. It was not, however, reported with any degree of fullness or accuracy, and is remembered only for the striking figure which it contained of "shearing the wolf.' "The noble Lord tells us that we went to war for the maintenance of rights: the King's speech says, we will go on for the maintenance of our rights. Oh, invaluable rights, that have cost Great Britain thirteen provinces, four islands, a hundred thousand men, and seventy millions of money! Oh, inestimable rights, that have taken from us our rank among nations, our importance abroad, and our happiness at home; that have taken from us our trade, our manufactures, our commerce; that have reduced us from the most flourishing empire in the world, to be one of the most miserable and abject powers on the face of the globe! All this we did because we had a right to tax America! Miserable and infatuated ministers! Wretched and un done country! not to know that right signifies nothing without might—that the claim, without the power of enforcing it, is nugatory and idle! We had a right to

tax America! Such is the reasoning by which the noble Lord justifies his conduet Similar was the reasoning of him who was resolved to shear the wolf! What shear a wolf? Have you considered the difficulty, the resistance, the danger? No! says the madman, I have considered nothing but the right! Man has a right of dominion over the inferior animals. A wolf has wool; animals that have wool are to be shorn; therefore I will shear the wolf!"

Well might M. Burke employ such language; for the news had reached London only two days before, that Lord Cornwallis had capitulated at Yorktown, with the loss of his entire army. When the intelligence was carried to Lord North, he re ceived it, says an eye-witness, "as he would have taken a ball into his breast!" He threw open his arms, exclaiming wildly, as he paced the room, "It is all over! it is all over!" And yet the war was to go on! Such was the inflexible determination of the King, who came forward the next day in his speech at the opening of Parliament, with increased demands for "concurrence and assistance" to carry on the contest. Such obstinacy justified the remarks of Mr. Burke, and the still greater severity with which Mr. Fox, in the same debate, pointed directly at the King himself. "We have heard a speech," said he, "breathing vengeance, blood, misery, and rancor. It speaks exactly this language: Much has been lost; much blood, much treasure has been squandered; the burdens of my people are almost intolerable; but my passions are yet ungratified; my object of subjugation and revenge is yet unfulfilled; and therefore I am determined to persevere.' And he did persevere. He compelled his ministers to persevere three months longer, during which the attack in the House of Commons was carried on with increased vehemence by Mr. Burke, Mr. Fox, and their associates, until, on the 27th of February, 1782, Lord North was voted down by a majority of 234 to 215. When the result was declared, there arose, says an eye-witness, a shout of triumph throughout the House, which seemed to pierce the roof, and then rolled away into the remotest parts of Westminster Hall. The King was conquered! At the close of March, a new ministry was formed, with Lord Rockingham at its head, having a cabinet composed of five Rockingham and five Shelburne Whigs. As the two parties could not agree on the disposal of the great seal, Lord Thurlow, with all his violent Tory feelings, was retained as Lord Chancellor, much to the satisfaction of the King.

We now come to the second period of Mr. Burke's political life. It would naturally be supposed that he who had borne nearly all the labor of this protracted contest, and had for years been the acknowledged head of the Opposition, would now be rewarded with a seat in the cabinet and the leadership of the House. Had Lord North resigned three years before, such might perhaps have been the case; but the pupil had risen above the master. Mr. Fox was now actuated by the keenest desire for popularity and power; and at this juncture he enjoyed peculiar advantages for placing himself at the head of the Whig party. His manners were highly conciliating; he was universally popular among the middle classes; while, as the favorite son of Lord Holland, he had unbounded influence with many of the most powerful families of the kingdom among the nobility and gentry. Though far inferior to Mr. Burke in richness of thought and copiousness of eloquence, he was a much more ef fective debater. He had made himself, by long practice, a perfect master of the science of attack and defense. When we add to this that he had a peculiar tact, beyond any of his contemporaries, for training and directing a political party, it is not surprising that he obtained the leadership of the House, and was made Secretary of State, while Mr. Burke was appointed Paymaster-general of the Forces. Whatever pain it may have cost him, Burke submitted to this arrangement with that noble generosity of feeling which was one of the brightest traits in his character. His bi ographer has truly said, "A vain man would have resented this treatment; a weak

man would have complained of it; an ambitious or selfish man would have taken advantage of the first opportunity to quit the connection, and throw the weight of his name and talents into the opposite scale;" but Mr. Burke quietly yielded the precedence. He gave all the force of his transcendent abilities for the support and advancement of one who had crowded into his place. The whole luistory of politics affords hardly another instance of such a sacrifice, made in a spirit so truly noble and magnanimous. Nor did he ever separate himself, in action or feeling, from Mr. Fox, until the French Revolution put an end at once to their political connection and their private friendship.

Under the new ministry, measures of the highest importance were immediately brought forward, and carried successfully through Parliament. In most of these measures Mr. Burke took the lead and responsibility far more than Mr. Fox. His plan of Economical Reform, which had previously been defeated, was now revived. Though narrowed in some of its provisions, it was strenuously resisted by the adherents of the Court, but ultimately passed by a large majority. Many useless offices were abolished in the royal household, with a saving of nearly a hundred thousand pounds a year. Provision was thus made for paying off the King's debts, which already amounted to £300,000; and a check was put to the recurrence of such exorbitant demands in future. His bill for regulating the duties of the Paymaster's department, was considered an extraordinary specimen of tact and ingenuity in arranging the details of a most complicated business. Any material reform here had been regarded as hopeless. And so it would have proved, if he had not commenced with himself; if he had not swept away at once enormous perquisites attached to his own office, arising out of profits on contracts, &c., together with the use of nearly a million of the public money, which made the situation of Paymaster the most lucrative one under the government. Considering his straitened circumstances, this was an extraordinary sacrifice. Lord Chatham alone had declined to use the public money, and placed it on deposit in the bank. Mr. Burke did more. He stripped himself of all his perquisites. He abolished them forever, and thus made a saving to the public which a pension of ten thousand pounds a year would have poorly reconipensed.

Lord Rockingham died suddenly on the first of July, 1782, at the end of thirteen weeks from the commencement of his administration. Lord Shelburne, without a word of consultation with his colleagues, instantly seized the reins. Mr. Fox and Mr. Burke, together with the Rockingham Whigs, considered themselves ill treated, and at once resigned. The Shelburne administration, which will be spoken of more fully hereafter, lasted hardly eight months. It was overthrown February the 21st, 1783, by the famous coalition between Mr. Fox and Lord North, which, giving the nominal headship to the Duke of Portland, made Mr. Fox the real and responsible minister. To this ill-advised union with their former enemy, Mr. Burke acceded with reluctance, overcome, as his biographer declares, by "the persuasions of Mr. Fox, who was both eloquent and urgent with him on that occasion." Under the coalition ministry, he again became Paymaster of the Forces.

The great measure of this administration, on which its fate at last turned, was the celebrated East India Bill of Mr. Fox. As this measure originated with Mr. Burke, who was the animating spirit of every party to which he belonged, it will be proper to speak briefly on the subject in this place. More than ten years before, his attention was strongly drawn to the affairs of India. He studied the subject with his accustomed assiduity, and showed so intimate an acquaintance with its minutest details, when the affairs of the East India Company came before the House in 1772, that Lord North, with a view, no doubt, to get rid of a troublesome opponent, sound.

6 See page 56.

ed him on the question "whether he was willing to go out at the head of a coinmis sion for revising the whole interior administration of India.' About four years after, his brother William went to that country, where he became agent for the Rajah of Tanjore, and afterward Deputy Paymaster-general of India. Through him Mr. Burke obtained much minute information respecting the Company's concerns, which could only have been collected by a person living on the spot. These studies were pursued with still greater diligence after he was appointed a member of the Select Committee to inquire into the concerns of the East India Company, and the result has been thus graphically described by Mr. Macaulay, who was qualified, by a resi dence of some years on the banks of the Ganges, to speak decisively on the subject: "Mr. Burke's knowledge of India was such as few, even of those Europeans who have passed many years in that country, have attained, and such as certainly was never attained by any public man who had not quitted Europe. He had studied the history, the laws, and the usages of the East with an industry such as is seldom found united to so much genius and so much sensibility. In every part of those huge bales of Indian information, which repelled almost all other readers, his mind, at once philosophical and poetical, found something to instruct or to delight. His reason analyzed and digested those vast and shapeless masses; his imagination animated and colored them. He had in the highest degree that noble faculty whereby man is able to live in the past and the future, in the distant and the unreal. India and its inhabitants were not to him, as to most Englishmen, mere names and abstractions, but a real country and a real people. The burning sun; the strange vegetation of the palm and cocoa-nut tree; the rice-fields and the tank; the huge trees, older than the Mogul empire, under which the village crowds assemble; the thatched roof of the peasant's hut, and the rich tracery of the mosque, where the imaum prayed with his face toward Mecca; the drums, and banners, and gaudy idols; the devotee swinging in the air; the graceful maiden, with the pitcher on her head, descending the steps to the river side; the black faces, the long beards, the yellow streaks of sect; the turbans and the flowing robes; the spears and the silver maces; the elephants, with their canopies of state; the gorgeous palanquin of the prince, and the close litter of the lady, all these things were to him as the ob jects amid which his own life had been passed, as the objects which lay on the road between Beaconsfield and St. James's Street. All India was present to the eye of his mind, from the halls where suitors laid gold and perfumes at the feet of sovereigns, to the wild moor where the gipsy-camp was pitched; from the bazars, humming like bee-hives with the crowd of buyers and sellers, to the jungle, where the lonely courier shakes his bunch of iron rings to scare away the hyenas. He had just as lively an idea of the insurrection at Benares as of Lord George Gordon's riots, and of the execution of Nuncomar as of the execution of Dr. Dodd. Oppression in Bengal was to him the same thing as oppression in the streets of London."

And why should it not be? Under the government of India, as now administered, the crimes of Englishmen abroad are punished on the same principles as the crimes of Englishmen at home. If a hundredth part of the cruelty and extortion of which Burke complained, were now found to exist among the Company's servants in India, all England would be moved with indignation, and nothing but the severest punishment could satisfy the demands of public justice. This change has been wrought mainly by the eloquence of Mr. Burke. The perpetrators of those crimes were indeed suffered to escape, for the nation had shared too largely in the profit to be fit executioners of the guilty. But every one felt that such enormities must cease; and the high ground taken by Mr. Burke was, perhaps, the only one which could have produced so entire a change of public sentiment. He was satisfied that the East India Com7 Miscellanies, WARREN HASTINGS.