The declaration of independence shocked Mr Burke, because he had really formed no views on the subject. He considered the existing interests of America, and the supposed wishes of the Americans; he saw the wretched instrumentalities which early menaced a young people, still seemingly with narrow resources, and little discretion; he felt their relationship of blood: but, above all, the honour and safety of England lay at his heart; and many reflections could not fail to be awakened, which will hereafter more distinctly come under our notice. England, thus engaged in a rash and ill-concerted war with her colonies, was also menaced by her powerful neighbours.

In the termination of 1776, the marquis of Rockingham, with his party, for a time entertained the design of an entire secession from parliament on all American questions. This was, however, prevented by Mr Burke's arguments, in a letter addressed to the marquis. On the 6th of February following, he made a speech on the employment of the American Indians in the war. The effect of this speech was such as to excite extraordinary admiration in the hearers. Colonel Barre said, that, if it were published, he would nail it up beside the proclamation for a general fast; and governor Johnstone exclaimed, that it was fortunate for the noble lords (lords North and Germaine) that there were no strangers present. Sir George Saville, himself a first-rate speaker in the house, said, " He who did not hear that speech, has not witnessed the greatest triumph of eloquence within memory."

A few days after, lord North brought forward a plan of conciliation, founded on that formerly proposed by Mr Burke, and was taunted by Mr Fox for having adopted these opinions "from his honourable friend." It is, however, evident enough that the question had shifted its grounds altogether in the minds of Americans.

In the same session, proposals were made by lord Nugent for the revisal of the Irish commercial restrictions. Mr Burke supported the motion, in a speech which drew upon him the displeasure of his constituents. In Ireland, on the other hand, it excited a popularity of the most ardent kind; and, there, proposals were entertained to set up his statue. But the support which he gave afterwards to Sir George Saville's bill, though highly offensive to his constituents, and in part the means of his being subsequently rejected at the general election, was insufficient to satisfy the ferocity of national zeal and party spirit in his native country; and he was as much abused and vilified in Ireland now, as he had been, a little before, praised and applauded. It was among the high moral virtues of Mr Burke to have become nerved against the uncertain changes of popular opinion. He, nevertheless, felt it right to explain the motives of his conduct to Mr Burgh, in a letter, which was circulated, and found its way to the press, though such was by no means the intention of Mr Burke.

There was this year felt much pressure, from the financial embarrassments caused by the war: the public discontent was increased by many of its incidents, and its general want of success: the expectations of the country had been disappointed, and the heavy expense had only purchased failure and disgrace. In consequence, there was a loud cry for parliamentary reform and retrenchment. Reform has ever been the popular panacea for all public discontents: its effect is to alter the

balance of power in the orders of the state. As understood in England, this alteration must have operated, so far as it had any operation, to transfer power from the higher to the lower classes. Such a process must have been prejudicial, or not, according to the actual state of both. At that period there were numerous influences at work, of which it had been the tendency to produce this very effect, to an extent of which the advantages were doubtful, and the disadvantages, though not quite developed, great, obvious, and certain. But it has ever been the favourite resource of the demagogue-for it serves the two dominant dispositions of his nature-to acquire a low popularity, and to pull down those who are exalted. Mr Burke, who was solely influenced by his own views of what was best for the public good, was at no time seduced into the support of this great popular question; and he was already beginning to be impressed with a sense of the growth of a democratic and levelling temper in England. He was also under the conviction that much evil had been the result of the depression of the aristocracy, which he attributed to the influence of the crown, directly exerted for the purpose. Under this double persuasion, he made up his mind as to the course of conduct best adapted to the occasion. In precise accordance with this general view, the conduct of Mr Burke will be found, on fair consideration, to be consistent with the principles of a constitutional whig of the Revolution of 1688; prompt to repress all encroachments on the liberty of the subject, without conceding to the still more menacing encroachments of popular exaction. He had, however, at the time of which we speak, fallen into a degree of unpopularity, the fruit of his conduct on the Irish and American questions, which the party with whom he still continued to be entangled considered as a considerable deduction from his value. His friends felt, and he could not help feeling, that some effort was wanting to restore the efficiency of his power over the popular mind. The popular cry was for reform and retrenchment: Mr Burke, in conformity with his own principles, undertook to bring forward the latter. With the independence of his character, he spurned from him the senseless outcry of the people, and at the same time engaged in an attack of unprecedented boldness and self-devotion upon the profuse and prodigal jobbing of the court. Still, under the fallacious impression of his party, that the influence of the crown was obtaining a dangerous preponderance, he devoted himself and his prospects to the duty of resistance. It was on the 15th of December, 1779, that he gave notice of his motion for retrenchment; and on the 11th of the following February, that he introduced it, with a speech which is well known to every political student. It is not necessary to enter on the subject; but the effort of genius, and its effects, cannot be passed in silence. Mr Prior writes:-" No public measure of the century received such general encomium. Few speeches, from the opposition side of the house, ever fell with greater effect than this; and of itself, had he never made any other, would place the speaker in the first rank of orators and practical statesmen, for comprehensiveness of design, minute knowledge of detail, the mingled moderation and justice towards the public and to the persons affected, the wisdom of its general principles, and their application to local objects." After enumerating the

various objects of retrenchment, running through the whole establishment of the crown, in all its departments, Mr Prior stops to praise the singular boldness of the plan. But we must leave room for contemporary praises, which Mr Prior, with a laudable industry, has selected and preserved. "It must remain," said Mr Dunning, in a burst of admiration, 66 as a monument, to be handed down to posterity of his uncommon zeal, unrivalled industry, astonishing abilities, and invincible perseverance. He had undertaken a task big with labour and difficulty-a task that embraced a variety of the most important objects, extensive and complicated; yet such were the eminent and unequalled abilities; so extraordinary the talents and ingenuity; and such the fortunate frame of the honourable gentleman's mind; his vast capacity, and happy conception; that, in his hands, what must have proved a vast heap of ponderous matter, composed of heterogeneous ingredients, discordant in their nature, and opposite in principle, was so arranged as to become quite simple as to each respective part dependent on each other; and the whole, at the same time, so judiciously combined, as to present nothing almost, to any mind tolerably intelligent, to divide, puzzle, or distract it."

"Mr Burke's reform bill," says Gibbon, " was framed with skill, introduced with eloquence, and supported by numbers. Never can I forget the delight with which that diffusive and ingenious orator was heard by all sides of the house, and even by those whose existence he proscribed." Of these latter, Mr Gibbon was himself one. Numerous other testimonies equally strong and explicit might be brought forward.

The bill was committed, and several months were occupied in the discussion of its clauses, during which Mr Burke continued the struggle against ministerial odds, with a degree of wit, argument and eloquence, which were the wonder and admiration of the house. Having made up his mind to defeat, he came to the discussion with "all that ready wit, pleasantry and good humour, which are the real features of his character."

Like

The speech is still to be found in his published works, and may without any doubt be recommended as among the most standard efforts that ancient or modern times have produced, whether judged as a speech, or as a masterly exposition on the subject it treats. many of Mr Burke's highest efforts, no passage can be selected without some injustice to all the rest; but we select ours not as a specimen, but because it happily exemplifies one quality of the speaker's mind, which we have already taken some pains to illustrate: we mean his lofty imagination, and the congenial veneration with which it turned to the solemn and sublime. Speaking of the expenses lavished upon waste and useless labours, he proceeds to show that the change of manners has antiquated and rendered obsolete the use of the ancient gothic establishments of state; "the royal household has lost all that is stately and venerable in the antique manners, without retrenching anything of the cumberous charge of a gothic establishment;" dwelling a moment on this, he goes on " but when the reason of old establishments is gone, it is absurd to preserve nothing but the burthen of them. This is superstitiously to embalm a carcass not worth an ounce

of the gums that are used to preserve it. It is to burn precious oils in the tomb; it is to offer meat and drink to the dead; not so much an honour to the deceased, as a disgrace to the survivors. Our palaces are vast inhospitable halls. There the bleak winds, there Boreas, and Eurus, and Caurus, and Argestes loud,' howling through the vacant lobbies, and clattering the doors of the ancient guard-rooms, appal the imagination and conjure up the grim spectres of departed tyrants the Saxon and the Norman and the Dane-the stern Edwards, and the fierce Henrys who stalk from desolation to desolation through the dread vacuity, and melancholy succession of chill and comfortless chambers. When this tumult subsides, a dead and still more frightful silence would reign in this desert; if every now and then, the tacking of hammers did not announce that those constant attendants in all courts, jobs, are still alive; for whose sake alone it is that any trace of ancient grandeur is permitted to remain. These palaces are true emblems of some governments; the inhabitants are decayed, but the governors and magistrates still flourish. They put me in mind of Old Sarum, where the representatives, more in number than the constituents, only serve to inform us that this was once a place of trade, and sounded with the busy hum of men,' though now you can only trace the streets by the colour of the corn."

We cannot enter at length into the history of the riots in London, excited by lord George Gordon. Mr Burke was among those whose parliamentary conduct had been such as to render him particularly obnoxious to the agitated mob, which for a few days menaced the safety of London. The circumstances are memorable for the calm and lofty courage which they were the occasion to call forth. Mr Burke came to town, and as he himself mentions in a letter "my wife being safely lodged, I spent part of the next day in the street amidst this wild assembly, into whose hands I delivered myself, informing them who I was!" Mr Prior, from whom we have extracted this passage, also quotes a newspaper to the following effect:-"This day (June 6th,) a detachment of foot-guards took possession of the Westminster hall, the doors of which they at last closed to prevent the mob from entering there: several members of both houses who walked down on foot, were thus prevented from getting into the house for a considerable time, among whom was Mr Burke, who was presently surrounded by some of the most decent of the petitioners, who expostulated with him on his conduct, in abetting Sir George Saville's motion for the Roman catholic bill. Mr Burke, in his defence said, that he had certainly seconded the motion for the bill, and thought himself justified in so doing; he said he understood he was a marked man on whom the petitioners meant to wreak their vengeance; and therefore he walked out singly among them, conscious of having done nothing that deserved their censure in the slightest degree, having always been an advocate for the people, and meaning to continue so."

A strong proof and illustration of the universal spirit in which Mr Burke's mind embraced the true interests of humanity as the fundamental ground of his actions, is the fact that in this year he conceived and arranged a plan for the mitigation of that darkest spot in human history, the slave trade. It was for strong party reasons considered

objectionable to bring forward such a measure, the opposition feared the powerful parties which would be offended by so decided and bold an interference with great commercial interests. Mr Burke was the more ready to concede the point to the great party with which he was as yet inextricably entangled, because he was well aware that the effort must be ineffectual against the strength of government, backed by the strongest corporate interests. The plan which he drew up may be found among his writings; it is like all his works of the kind, a remarkable proof of indefatigable industry and comprehensive views— it still more remarkably proves the intelligence far ahead of his generation, His views have been at last adopted and carried into effect in our own time, even to the adoption of his language.

On the dissolution of parliament in 1780, he went to Bristol to stand his election. He was well aware of the probabilities which existed against him. His conduct had on two eminent occasions been directly opposed to the wishes of his constituents; and he knew that complaints of the most illiberal kind had been made of his neglect to visit that city. On this occasion he addressed the electors in the Guildhall, in a speech well known, and deservedly placed at the head of all popular speeches for its singular combination of fine tact and address, with a frankness and manliness not often to be detected in the language of public men. He vindicated himself by maintaining his principles of conduct: the invidious charge of neglect he repelled by a brief and forcible statement of his services; his labours for individual constituents had been as great and onerous as if he had laboured in no other character than as an agent, a solicitor, and a shipbroker. "A visit to Bristol," he said, "is always a sort of canvass; else, it will do more harm than good. To pass from the toils of a session to the toils of a canvass is the farthest thing in the world from repose. I could hardly serve you as I have done, and court you too. Most of you have heard that I do not very remarkably spare myself in public business; and in the private business of my constituents I have done very near as much as those who have nothing else to do. My canvass of you was not on the 'change, nor in the county meetings; nor in the clubs of this city. It was in the house of commons-it was at the customhouse-it was at the council-it was at the treasury-it was at the admiralty-I canvassed you through your affairs, and not in your persons. I was not only your representative as a body, I was the agent, the solicitor of individuals; I ran about wherever your affairs could call me, and, in acting for you, I often appeared rather as a shipbroker than as a member of parliament."

He then complained that while he had been engaged in the laborious details of the economical reform bills, a canvass against him had been carried on with great activity in that city; that promises and pledges had been sought for to move him from his seat as if he had been dead, or as if his laborious performance of a duty which bound him to the last day of session, had been regarded as the resignation of his seat. He next, delicately but forcibly, reminded them of the delusions into which they had been led respecting the American war, as a motive at one time for not visiting them. He next entered upon their main charges, and justified himself boldly on his conduct upon the