GHREONAC Lis 
poileffors to the firft confideration 
in this country. Mr. Burke, though 
of popith parentage, was educated 
a proteftant, in a quakers {chool at 
Ballytore, about twenty miles from 
the capital, and afierwards in the 
univerfity of Dublin, where he was, 
in 1746, a fcholar of the houfe at 
the age of eighteen: an inftitution 
fimilar to that.of a ftudent of Chrift 
Church, Oxford. According to 
Dr. Leland, his academical contem- 
porary, he gave no extraordinary 
indications of genius in that femi- 
nary, where he awas graduated in 
1749. The report of his refidence 
at St. Omer’s, and of his popifh 
education, is fabulous, originating 
from envy, or grounded folely: up- 
on the plaufibility of his being a 
warm and -liberal friend to tolera- 
tion. The Hiftory of the Europe- 
an Colonies in) America, in two 
{mall volumes, was the firft joint 
production of Burke and his cou- 
fin, in a rural excurfion and fummer 
retreat from the Middle Temple, 
in 1750, where he {pent fome time, 
and, though rapidly traced from 
Hackluyt’s Voyages, it was juftly 
eftimaied as the promifing effort of 
a juvenile and rifing genius. 
_ "The publication of Lord Boling- 
‘proke’s works, and the death of 
that great writer and Englifh claf- 
fic, had engaged the attention of 
the republic of letters, when Mr. 
Burke publithed his Vindication of 
Natural Socicty, preferved in Dod- 
fley’s Fugitive Pieces, as a potthu- 
mous work of Lord Bolingbroke. 
The late Karl of Chefterfield ufed 
to relate that he was under a de- 
_ ception forfome time, and thought 
it the genuine production of his old 
acquaintance, till the difcovery of 
_ the true author gained Burke the 
favour of his Lordhhip and of Dr. 
(9 
AL 
Markham, as well as a juft reputa- 
tion for ftyle and imitative powers, 
In'1757 he engaged with Dodfley 
to compile the Hiftory of Europe in 
the Annual Regifter. This work 
he did not always acknowledge ; 
but Dr. Leland, accidentally or by 
defign, by criticifiag the offspring, 
difcovered the genuine fondnefs of 
the parent. 
Having formed a- connection 
with Mr. Hamilton, he accompani= 
ed that gentleman to Ircland in 
1761, where his eloquence produc- 
ed fuch effeéts in the Irith fenate. 
Mr. Burke was fuppofed to have 
revifed Mr. Hamilton’s compoled 
orations, though without reafon ; 
for nothing could be more. diffimi- 
lar than their ftyle. But a mutual 
mifunderftanding induced him foon 
to return to England, with a pens © 
fion of 3001. per annum, which was 
foon after fold, upon the Irith efta~ 
blithment. After his return to 
England he employed his leifure om 
his Effay upon the Sublime and- 
Beautiful, which excited. much at- 
tention, and which certainly-affords 
a delightful excurfion into the re- 
gions of metaphyfical imagination. 
To Mr. Fitzherbert, father of 
Lord St. Helen, he owed his intro- 
duction to the Marquis of Rocking: 
ham, who, with hisufual and bene= 
volent propenfity to difcover and 
promote merit wherever it was to 
be found, recommended him to be 
his private fecretary in 1766; and, 
through the favour of Lord Ver 
ney, he was foon after returned a 
reprefentative for the borough of 
Wendover. Foo well known fince 
that period, as an orator and as @ 
writer, to want any. eulogium, an 
attentive perufal of Mr. Burke's 
publications will alone give a juft 
eflimate, and form a true <r ee 
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