fejanus. As Mr. Burke was naturally of an active difpofition of mind, his moments were conftantly employed, either in confulting the beft writers, converfing with the most intelligent on the moft ufeful fubjects, occafionally pruning his trees, or directing his rivulets. His own account of his ftudies will be preferred to mine.

"When," said he, "I firft devoted myself to the public fervice, I confidered how I fhould render myfelf fit for it; and this I did by endeavouring to difcover what it was, that gave this country the rank it holds in the world. I found that our profperity and dignity arose principally, if not folely, from two fources our conftitution and commerce. Both these I have spared no study to understand, and no endeavour to fupport."- -Speech to the Electors of Bristol.

In 1766, Mr. Burke paid a vifit to Ireland, where he found a number of perfons, who had difcovered that they were related to him, fince he became a British Senator. He did not, however, forget his old friends in the long lift of his new relations-he vifited all, received all with affability and good nature, retraced with rapture the fcenes of his boyish days-and returned to his duty in the latter end of March 1768; in the fame year he was returned at the general election for the borough of Malton in Yorkshire, through the intereft of the Marquis, his patron.

The feffion of 1768 was opened with a clouded profpect. The high price of provifions was very feverely felt by thofe who earned them with the sweat of their brow; the restraining act relative to the East India company; the Nullum Tempus Bill, afforded ample room for difcuffion. Mr. Burke took a very active part in all those questions, in which he was very ably fupported by Mr. Dowdefwell, Mr. Dunning, (late Lord Afhburton) and Colonel Barré, Such union of talents was equal to the difcuffion of any fubject that could poffibly be advanced. Mr.

d

Burke was always found on his poft, the firft on the breach, and the laft on the mine. The brilliancy of his talents was fo univerfally felt and acknowledged, that he was ranked as the leader of the Rockingham party.

Sometimes his zeal, and the natural warmth of his temper, would urge him to prefs a point beyond its due bounds, which afforded his opponents a temporary triumph;-temporary indeed! for the eafe and ingenuity with which he ufed to recover his previous pofition, evinced the refources of his mind, and the fubtilty of his imagination, which induced the great Lord Chatham to say on one of thefe occafions, that Burke could only be wounded by Burke.

Mr. Burke, it is true, enlifted under the banners of party, but as that party may be called the guardian of the conftitution, he was left at full liberty to fuggeft fuch measures as would forward or fecure the most patriotic objects; in fhort he was left to the full difplay of his own powers and opinions, and rather led than followed in almoft every debate.

The Duke of Grafton was daily lofing ground; an administration, "fo chequered and fpeckled, a piece of joinery fo crossly indented, and fo whimfically dovetailed," could not fupport itself against the cloquence of Mr. Burke, and the pen of Junius. Accordingly, on the 28th of January, 1770, his Grace refigned his fituation, as firft Lord of the Treafury, and was fucceeded by the Right Hon. Frederick Lord North. Mr. Burke defcribes the fituation of public affairs at this period in the following words:

Nobody, I believe, will confider it merely as the language of fpleen or difappointment, if I fay, that there is fomething particularly alarming in the prefent conjuncture. There is hardly a man in or out of power who holds any other language. That government is at once dreaded and contemned; that the laws are defpoiled of all their respect and

falutary terrors; that their inaction is a fubject of ridicule, and their exertion of abhorrence; that rank, and office, and title, and all the folemn plaufibilities of the world, have loft their reverence and effect; that our foreign politics are as much deranged as our domeftic economy; that our dependencies are flackened in their affection, and loofened from their obedience; that we know neither how to yield nor how to enforce; that hardly any thing above or below, abroad or at home, is found and entire; but that difconnexion and confufion, in office, in parties, in families, in parliament, in the nation, prevail beyond the diforders of any former time:-thefe are facts univerfally admitted and la

mented."

The Earl of Chatham faw things in the fame alarming point of view. "At my time of life," fays that venerable ftatefman*, "loaded as I am with infirmities, I might, perhaps, have flood excufed, if I had continued in retirement, and never taken a part again in public affairs. But the alarming state of the nation forced me to come forward, once more, and to execute that duty which I owe to God, to my fovereign, and to my country, and I am determined to perform it at the risk of my life;" and in these three points of view, it must be confeffed, that he performed his yow as a man, an hereditary counsellor of the crown, and a patriot, nobly falling with a falling ftate; but though he raised his voice to Heaven, and poured the balm of conciliation from his lips, that warning voice was not attended to, and his venerable figure, and the fire of his imagination, were the only things that feem to have made an impreffion on those that heard him. His Lordfhip's fentiments, relative to America, were well known previous to that day. Speaking, however, of that continent in the courfe of his

*See Earl of Chatham's fpeech on the addrefs moved on the 9th of January, 1770, by the Duke of Ancafter.

fpeech, He lamented the unhappy measure which had divided the colonies from the mother country, and which, he feared, had drawn them into exceffes which he could not juftify. He owned his natural partiality to America, and was inclined to make allowance even for thofe exceffes; that they ought to be treated with tenderness; for in his fenfe they were ebullitions of liberty, which broke out upon the fkin, and were a fign, if not of perfect health, at leaft, of a vigorous conftitution, and muft not be driven in too fuddenly, leaft they fhould ftrike to the heart. He profeffed himself entirely ignorant of the prefent flate of America, therefore fhould be cautious of giving any opinion of the meafures fit to be pursued with refpect to that country. That it was a maxim he had obferved through life, when he had loft way, to stop fhort, left by proceeding without knowledge, and advancing (as he feared a noble Duke had done) from one falfe ftep to another, he fhould wind himfelf into an inextricable labyrinth, and never be able to recover the right road again. That as the House had yet no materials before them, by which they might judge of the proceedings of the colonies, he ftrongly objected to their paffing that heavy cenfure upon them, which was conveyed in the word unwarrantable, contained in the propofed address; that it was palling a sentence without hearing the caufe, or being acquainted with facts; might expofe the proceedings of the Houfe to be received abroad with indifference or difrefpect; that if unwarrantable meant any thing, it must mean illegal, and how could their Lordfhips decide that proceedings, which had not been ftated to them in any fhape, were contrary to law; that what he had heard of the combinations in America, and of their fuccefs in fupplying themfelves with goods of their own manufacture, had, indeed, alarmed him much for the commercial interests of the mother country; but he could not conceive in what fenfe they could be

called illegal, much lefs how a declaration of that Houfe could remove the evil; that they were dangerous, indeed, and he greatly withed to have that word fubftituted for unwarrantable; that the difcontent of two millions of people deferved confideration, and the foundation of it ought to be removed; that this was the true way of putting a ftop to combinations and manufactures in that country; but that he referved himself to give his opinion more particularly upon this fubject, when authentic informa tion of the ftate of America fhould be laid before the Houfe.

"That we fhould be cautious how we invaded the liberties of any part of our fellow-fubjects, however remote in fituation, or unable to make refiftance; that liberty was a plant that deferved to be cherished; that he loved the tree, and wished well to every branch of it; that like the vine in fcripture, it had spread from Eaft to West, had embraced whole nations with its branches, and fheltered them under its leaves; that the Americans had purchased their liberty at a dear rate, fince they had quitted their native country, country, and gone in fearch of freedom

to a defert."

In 1772 and 1773, the Eaft-India affairs were fubmitted to the attention and confideration of parliament; two committees were appointed to examine and report on this fubject. The firft was an open committee, and the second a fecret one. The former was very flow in their proceedings, and the latter very hafty. This contraft furnished Mr. Burke with abundant pleasantry. In difcuffing a fubject of fuch magnitude, he gave evident proofs that it was not beyond his reach; nay, that he was very intimate with the most intricate parts of it, but majorities 'triumphed over arguments. The Houfe having refolved itself into a committee on a bill for leaving the Company in poffeffion of their territorial poffel