WSi 



BORKB, BDMOND. 



BURKE, EDMUND. 



in Amt-rica,' be apeak* of the trron of former time*, " when what we 

 call the balanoe of trade was far from being well understood." In the 

 present work there U a passage respecting this same baUnce of trade, 

 in which the fallacy of the common doctrine U very strongly put. 

 He u speaking of the Newfoundland trade : " Examine," ho says, "our 

 import* from thence ; it seems, upon thU vulgar idea of export*) and 

 import^, to turn the balance against you. Itut . . . your import 

 u your own food ; as much your own at that you raiso with your 

 ploughs out of your own toil ; and not your loai, but your gain ; your 

 rich**, not your poTerty. ... To state the whole of the foreign 

 ioiporU 'a* lot* i* exceedingly abtunl. . . . Even where they are 

 not subservient to our export*, they still add to onr internal wealth, 

 which consists in the (took of uteful commodities, u much a* in gold 

 and silver." " Thoeo conaideration*," he add*, " have been but too 

 much neglected by most who have speculated on thi* subject." Adam 

 Smith, when he became acquainted with Burke come yean after this 

 in London, declared that he wa the only man he had met with who 

 thought as ho himself did on the chief topics of political economy, 

 without previous communication. 



The pamphlet on the stato of the nation was followed in 1770 by 

 the ' Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontent*,' perhaps the 

 moat carefully finished and the most perfect, though not the most 

 plendid, of all Burke's writings. In the preface to the ' Observations 

 on the Conduct of the Minority,' it is asserted that this production 

 was drawn np at the desire of the Rockingham party ; that the mate- 

 rials of it were collected from various conversations with all the 

 trading members of that connection ; nnd that before it was sent 

 abroad iuto the world the particular and dUtinct approbation of each 

 was obtained. In November 1771, Burke was appointed to the 

 situation of agent to the state of New York, the emolument* of which 

 amounted to nearly 7002. a year. In parliament he continued to take 

 a prominent part in all discussion*, and now undoubtedly filled a larger 

 space in the public eye than any other member of the opposition. In 

 the session of 1772-73. nearly the whole of which was occupied in 

 the discussion of the affairs of the East ludia Company, he particu- 

 larly distinguished himself. In the next session a greater subject 

 brought him still more conspicuously forward the state of affairs in 

 America, uonr, it might be said, almost in actual insurrection. On the 

 19th of April 1774 he delivered bis great speech, afterwards published, 

 on ' American Taxation,' on occasion of Mr. Hose Fuller's motion for 

 the repeal of the Tea duty. On the dissolution of parliament a few 

 months after, he was returned by the interest of Lord Rockingham for 

 tho borough of Malton ; but while he was in the act of returning 

 thanks to his new constituents, a deputation arrived from Bristol to 

 Ultimate to him that ho had been nominated for that city, and to 

 carry him thither without delay. By travelling day and night he 

 arrived in Bristol on the sixth day of the poll, and immediately pro- 

 ceeded to the hustings and addressed the electors. After a bard 

 contest of twenty-seven days he was returned on the 3rd of Novem- 

 ber. On the 22nd of March 1775, on moving in the House of 

 Commons a series of resolutions for conciliation with the American 

 colonies, he delivered another speech of great eloquence and power, 

 which he also some time afterwards sent to the press. The affairs of 

 IroUud, and especially the repeal or mitigation of the Catholic dis- 

 abilities, likewise now engaged much of his attention, and were the 

 subject of his zealous exertion* both in and out of parliament. In 

 April 1777 he drew upanable defence of his conduct on the American 

 question, iu the form of a letter to the sheriffs of Bristol, which was 

 immediately published. This was followed in April and May 1778 by 

 'Two Letters to Gentlemen in the City of Bristol, on the Bills 

 depending iu Parliament relative to the Trade of Ireland,' another 

 subject on which the liberal course he had pursued hod given great 

 offence to many of hi* constituent*. Ou the llth of February 1780, 

 he submitted iu the House of Commons his celebrated plan for the 

 regulation of the tff,iira of the household, the ordnance, the mint, the 

 exchequer, the army, navy, and pension pay-offices, tc,, in five bills. 

 The admirable speech with which he introduced this plan was pub- 

 . and u commonly known as his 'Speech on the Economical 



;.' .'.'oue of his other parliamentary exertions procured him so 

 much public applause a* this. Its merits however did not outweigh, 

 in the estimation of the majority of tho electors of Bristol, certain 

 other part* of hi* conduct which had excited their deepest resentment, 

 especially hi* support of the act* for opening the trade of Ireland, and 

 hii strenuous advocacy of the measure* for relieving the Roman 



;e, which this year excited so terrible a popular ferment. The 

 consequence wa, that, on the dissolution of the parliament which 

 took place this summer, he found it advisable to decline again standing 

 fr I'.rUtul. He presented himself however to his former constituent* 

 pmvious to the election in the beginning of September, and addressed 

 them in a speech which has been published, and is one of the very 

 best he ever delivered. He was now returned for Malton, for which 

 borough he sat during the rest of hi* parliamentary lif.-. 



rth and hi* colleagues were at last forced to resign 

 in March 1732, and tho Rockingliniu party again came into power, 



irke wiui made a privy councillor, and appointed to the office of 



p*yma*tr-g- ucral of the forces. He received the usual treatment of 



the highest abilities, when unsuataiued by any aristocratic connection, 



ing exclude I from the cabinet Tho office of paymaster had 



long been the moat lucrative in the state ; but Burke immediately 

 brought in a bill for it* reform, by which it* enormous profits were 

 completely swept away. The annual saving to the public which his 

 plan effected amounted to 47.000/., of which not less than 25,3001. 

 wen the usual perquisites which all hit predecessors had received i ! . 

 also now carried through hi* other bills of economical reform, though 

 the various interests affected by them in both houses were sufficiently 

 powerful to mutilate them by the excision of some of their most 

 important part*. 



On the death of the Marquis of Rockingham in July, and the 

 appointment of Lord Shelburne to the head of the Treasury, Mr. 

 Burke resigned, along with Mr. Fox and the other friend* of Lord 

 Rockingham. The success of the celebrated coalition with Lord 

 North however brought him back to bis former office on the formation 

 of the Duke of Portland's ministry in March 1783. In this and the 

 following session be took a leading part iu the discussion of the affairs 

 of India and the Company's government of that territory, a vast and 

 intricate subject, which he had long studied, and which he was uni- 

 versally admitted to understand better than any other man in parlia- 

 ment " Early in his opposition to Lord North," says the preface to 

 the 'Observations on the Conduct of the Minority,' "the ruling 

 directors of the East India Company, wishing to stop a popuv 

 and to take from government the best plea for iuteruu-ddliug in their 

 affairs, proposed to send Mr. Burke, on his own terms, at the 1:. 

 a commission to reform the abuses of the East. Some of the 

 spondence on this occasion is still extant. He resolved not to go, 

 actually refused tho appointment, and then, and not before, acquainted 

 Lord Rockingham with his determination." Two voluminous reports, 

 numbered the 9th and the llth, from the select committee apj> 

 in a previous session to inquire into the administration of ju- 

 the provinces of Bengal, Babar, and Orisso, were entirely prepared by 

 him. The first, dated tho 25th of June 1783, occupies 202 page* in 

 the octavo edition of his works ; the second, which was laid before 

 the house the same year, extends to 80 pages, exclusive of a bulky 

 appendix of documents. On the 1st of December he delivered 

 another powerful speech, which he soon after sent to the press, on the 

 motion for the House resolving itself into a committee on Mr. Fox's 

 India Bill. When this famous measure determined the fate of the 

 administration about a fortnight afterwards, Mr. Burke was dismissed 

 from office with tho rest of his party. He never was again a member 

 of the government. 



For some years after this the affairs of India engaged his whole 

 "heart, and soul, and mind, and strength." One of the noblest of his 

 published speeches is that which he delivered on the 23th of February 

 1785, in support of Mr. Fox's motion for papers relating to the debts 

 of the nabob of Arcot ThU was followed by what have been justly 

 called his " Herculean labours " iu tho prosecution of Mr. Hastings. 

 On the 4th of April 1786, he presented to tho House the articles of 

 charge against the ex-governor-general ; they fill two volumes of the 

 octavo edition of his works. On the 1st of June he opened tli 

 charge. It wag not until February 17SS, that the trial be. 

 Westminster Hall, when the impeachment was opened by .Mr. Kink", 

 in a npeech which lasted four days, and was throughout a wonderful 

 display of impassioned eloquence, and of all the resources of his rirh 

 and gifted mind. On the 21st and 25th of April, and the 5th and 

 7th of May 1789, he opened the sixth charge iu another speech, or 

 rather series of orations. On the 30th of April 1794, he presented to 

 the House of Commons an elaborate report, tilling 200 printed octavo 

 pages, on the whole parliamentary law of impeachments, iu the name 

 of a committee which hod been appointed to inspect the Lord]' 

 journals in relation to their proceedings on this trial. Finally, on thn 

 2Sth of May, iu the same year, he commenced his concluding address 

 on the impeachment, which continued for nine days. All those speeches 

 have been published since his death, from note? in which he spent 

 the leisure of the last years of his life in preparing, and which ha 

 enjoined his executors to give to tho world. His labours iu what ho 

 was accustomed to call " the Indian Field," were to the close of his 

 existence regarded by Burke as those by which he had deserved best 

 of bin country. Kv. n iu 1796, after all his warfare against the French 

 Revolution, he writes (iu his ' Letter to a Noble Lord on the Attacks 

 made on hi.s Pension '), " 1 did not come into parliament to con my 

 losflon. I had earned my pension before I set my foot iu St Stephen's 

 chapel. I was prepared and disciplined to this political wnriuie. 

 The first session I sat in parliament I found it necessary to analyse the 

 whole commercial, financial, constitutional, and foreign interests of 

 Great Britain and its empire . . . Then, in the vigour of uiy manhood, 

 my constitution sunk under my labour . . . But in truth these 

 services I am called to account for arc not those on which I valua 

 myself the most. If I were to call for a reward (which I havo inner 

 done), it should be for those in which, for fourteen year* without 

 intermission, I showed the most industry and had the least success, I 

 mean in the affairs of Indi.i : they are those on which 1 value i 

 the most ; most for the importance, mot for the labour, most for 

 the judgment, most for constancy and perseverance in the pursuit. 

 Others may value them most for the intention. In th:tt mircly they 

 are not mistaken." 



Hut while he was yet in the midst of his exertions in this depart- 

 ment, another great subject suddenly called him off, which was 



