consummate treachery and gave it to the public for that of Mr. Vaughan. I think myself obliged to do justice to an injured man because I was deceived by the appearances thrown out by your Grace and have frequently spoken of his conduct with indignation. If he really be, what I think him, honest,. though mistaken, he will be happy in recovering his reputation, though at the expense of his understanding. Here, I see, the matter is likely to rest. Your Grace is afraid to carry on the prosecution. Mr. Hine keeps quiet possession of his purchase; and Governor Burgoyne, relieved from the apprehension of refunding the money, sits down, for the remainder of his life, infamous and contented.

I believe, my lord, I may now take my leave of you you forever. You are no longer that resolute minister who had spirit to support the most violent measures; who compensated for the want of good and great qualities by a brave determination (which some people admired and relied on) to naintain himself without them. The reputation of obstinacy and perseverance might have supplied the place of 11 he absent virtues. You have now added the last negative to your character and meanly confessed that you are destitute of the common spirit of a man. Retire then, my lord, and hide your blushes from the world; for, with such a load of shame, even black may change its color. A mind such as yours, in the solitary hours of domestic enjoyment, may still find topics of consolation. You may find it in the memory of violated friendship, in the afflictions of an accomplished prince whom you have disgraced and deserted, and in the agitations of a great country driven by your councils to the brink of destruction.

The palm of ministerial firmness is now transferred to Lord North. He tells us so himself, with the plenitude of the ore rotundo; and I am ready enough to believe that while he

can keep his place he will not easily be persuaded to resign it. Your Grace was the firm minister of yesterday: Lord North is the firm minister of to-day. To-morrow, perhaps, his Majesty, in his wisdom, may give us a rival for you both. You are too well acquainted with the temper of your late allies to think it possible that Lord North should be permitted to govern this country. If we may believe common fame, they have shown him their superiority already. His Majesty is indeed too gracious to insult his subjects by choosing his first minister from among the domestics of the Duke of Bedford. That would have been too gross an outrage to the three kingdoms. Their purpose, however, is equally answered by pushing forward this unhappy figure and forcing it to bear the odium of measures which they in reality direct. Without immediately appearing to govern, they possess the power, and distribute the emoluments of government as they think proper. They still adhere to the spirit of that calculation which made Mr. Luttrell representative of Middlesex. Far from regretting your retreat, they assure us very gravely that it increases the real strength of the ministry. According to this way of reasoning they will probably grow stronger and more flourishing every hour they exist; for I think there is hardly a day passes in which some one or other of his Majesty's servants does not leave them to improve by the loss of his assistance. But, alas! their countenances speak a different language. When the members drop off, the main body cannot be insensible of its approaching dissolution. Even the violence of their proceedings is a signal of despair. Like broken tenants, who

have had warning to quit the premises, they curse their landlord, destroy the fixtures, throw everything into confusion, and care not what mischief they do to the estate.

JUNIUS.

11

EDMUND BURKE

EDMUND BURKE was born at Dublin on January 12, 1729.

His father

was a Protestant attorney practicing in the Irish capital, but his mother was a Catholic, a member of the family of Nagle. At the age of 12, he was sent to school at Ballitore in the County of Kildare, and two years later was matriculated at Trinity College, Dublin. He left Trinity in 1748 without having acquired any academic distinction or any great stock of well-ordered knowl edge. In 1750, he went to London to keep terms at the Temple. The next ten years of his life seem to have been passed in obscure industry. He is said to have been one of the numerous lovers of his countrywoman, Peg Woffington. It was hinted that he made a mysterious visit to the American colonies. He was for years accused of having gone over to the Church of Rome and of recanting afterward. As a matter of fact, there is no evidence of any of the statements to Burke's discredit. In 1756, he published “An Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful," a crude performance which in England had considerable vogue, but has left no permanent trace in the development of æsthetic thought. Subsequently, he brought out an abridgment of the History of England as far as the reign of John, and, about the same time, an "Account of the European Settlements in America." In 1759 he started the Annual Register, which was designed to present the chief events of each year. In 1759, he was introduced by Lord Charlemont to "Single Speech" Hamilton, and, when the latter was made Irish Secretary, Burke accompanied him to Dublin. When Hamilton retired from this post, Burke went back with him to London and obtained a pension of $1,500 a year on the Irish Establishment. This pension, however, he kept only for a twelvemonth. In July, 1765, the Marquis of Rockingham, becoming Prime Minister, was induced to make Burke his private secretary; their relations continued to be those of close friendship and confidence until the Marquis's death in 1782. Having been returned to the House of Com. mons for the pocket borough of Wendover, Burke delivered his first speech in January, 1766, and thenceforth, until 1790, was recognized as one of the chief guides and inspirers of the Whig party. His speech on the Conciliation of the Colonies, and the first of his orations against Warren Hastings, both of which are here reproduced, are generally deemed the most admirable examples of his eloquence. After the outbreak of the French Revolution, Burke parted company from most of his old Whig friends, advocated a war between England and the French Revolutionary Government, showing himself a much more vehement

upholder of the Ancien Régime than was the younger Pitt himself. Burke died in 1797, and was buried in the little church at Beaconsfield. Had his son Richard survived him, Burke would have been made a peer under the name of Lord Beaconsfield, and an income for three lives would have been annexed to the title.

I

ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA

HOPE, sir, that, notwithstanding the austerity of the chair, your good nature will incline you to some degree of indulgence toward human frailty. You will

not think it unnatural that those who have an object depending, which strongly engages their hopes and fears, should be somewhat inclined to superstition. As I came into the House full of anxiety about the event of my motion, I found, to my infinite surprise, that the grand penal bill, by which we had passed sentence on the trade and sustenance of America, is to be returned to us from the other House. I do confess, I could not help looking on this event as a fortunate omen. I look upon it as a sort of providential favor, by which we are put once more in possession of our deliberative capacity, upon a business so very questionable in its nature, so very uncertain in its issue. By the return of this bill, which seemed to have taken its flight forever, we are, at this very instant, nearly as free to choose a plan for our American government as we were on the first day of the session. If, sir, we incline to the side of conciliation, we are not at all embarrassed (unless we please to make ourselves so) by any incon gruous mixture of coercion and restraint. We are, therefore, called upon, as it were by a superior warning voice, again to attend to America; to attend to the whole of it together; and to review the subject with an unusual degree of care and calmness.

Surely it is an awful subject, or there is none so on
When I first had the honor of a

this side of the grave.
seat in this House, the affairs of that continent pressed
themselves upon us as the most important and most deli-
cate object of parliamentary attention. My little share in
this great deliberation oppressed me. I found myself a
partaker in a very high trust; and having no sort of rea-
son to rely on the strength of my natural abilities for the
proper execution of that trust, I was obliged to take more
than common pains to instruct myself in everything which
relates to our colonies. I was not less under the necessity
of forming some fixed ideas concerning the general policy
of the British empire. Something of this sort seemed to
be indispensable, in order, amid so vast a fluctuation of
passions and opinions, to concentre my thoughts; to bal-
last my conduct; to preserve me from being blown about
by every wind of fashionable doctrine. I really did not
think it safe or manly to have fresh principles to seek
upon every fresh mail which should arrive from America.

At that period I had the fortune to find myself in perfect concurrence with a large majority in this House. Bowing under that high authority, and penetrated with the sharpness and strength of that early impression, I bave continued ever since in my original sentiments without the least deviation. Whether this be owing to an obstinate perseverance in error, or to a religious adherence to what appears to me truth and reason, it is in your equity to judge.

Sir, Parliament having an enlarged view of objects, made, during this interval, more frequent changes in their sentiment and their conduct than could be justified in a particular person upon the contracted scale of private