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BURKE, EDMUND. 



BURKE, EDMUND. 



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destined to make the closing years of his life the most memorable and 

 interesting portion of his political Course. We have already had 

 occasion to notice how early he had begun to keep an expecting eye 

 upon the affairs of France. In a visit which he had paid to Paris not 

 long before the accession of Louis XVI., "he was courted and 

 caressed," says the Preface to the ' Observations on the conduct of the 

 Minority," " as a man of eminence by the literary cabal which was 

 then preparing the way for the overthrow of altars and thrones. 

 They daily beset him, and communicated to him enough to let a 

 mind so observant as his into all their secrets. From that time he 

 always dated those impressions which made him foresee, in their first 

 rudiments, the hideous consequences of the doctrines propagated, and 

 the measures pursued, by the pretended National Assembly of France. 

 Not long after his return from Paris, he took occasion in the House 

 of Commons, to testify those impressions. In a speech, of which no 

 satisfactory report was ever given, but which was taken in short-hand, 

 and of which a copy remains corrected by himself, he pointed out the 

 conspiracy of atheism to the watchful jealousy of governments. . . . 

 With a mind thus long before prepared, he could not be slow in 

 forming his notions of the French Revolution. Nevertheless he 

 sought information from every quarter, as if the subject had been 

 wholly new to him. He desired all persons of his acquaintance who 

 were going to Paris (and curiosity attracted many), to bring him what- 

 ever they could collect of the greatest circulation, both on the one 

 side and the other. He had also many correspondents, not only among 

 the English and Americans residing there, but also among the natives, 

 to whom, as well as to other foreigners, he had always done the honours 

 of this country, as far as his means would permit him, with liberal 

 hospitality. Among others, ho received letters, endeavouring to trick 

 out the events of the Revolutiou in the most gaudy colouring, from 

 Mr. Pine, Mr. Christie, and Baron Cloots, afterwards better known 

 by the name of Auacharsis. It was in answer to a letter of this kind 

 from a French gentleman that he wrote his celebrated ' Reflections.'" 



The ' Reflections on the Revolution in France ' were published in 

 the beginning of November 1790. No political work probably was 

 ever read with such avidity on its appearance, or produced so great 

 an effect on the public mind. We have before us the sixth edition, 

 printed b -fore the end of the year. It is said that above 30,000 copies 

 were sold before the first demand was satisfied. 



It in stated in the preface to the ' Observations on the Conduct of 

 the Minority ,' that, on the publication of the work, " Mr. Burke had 

 the satisfaction of receiving explicit testimonies of concurrence and 

 applause from the principal members of the party with whom he had 

 begun his political career." The opinions he had expressed however 

 eventually led, as is well known, to a complete separation between 

 himself and Mr. Fox, the then acknowledged leader of the Whigs in 

 the House of Commons. The fullest and most minute account of the 

 whole affair that has been published is that given in the ' Annual 

 Register 'for 1791. To this narrative, none of the statements con- 

 tained in which have ever as far as wo are aware been contradicted, 

 may be addel the preface to the ' Observations on the Conduct of the 

 Minority,' to which we have so often had occasion to refer. The final 

 contention in the House of Commons took place on the 6th of May 

 1791. " The scene altogether," as the writers of the 'Preface' observe, 

 " was of the most afflicting kind." 



In the following July, liurku published an elaborate defence of the 

 whole course of bis political life, under the title of 'An Appeal from 

 the New to the Old Whigs.' In thU spirited vindication he addresses 

 himself especially to the attacks to which he had been subjected on 

 the ground of the alleged inconsistency of his recent doctrines with 

 those he had formerly maintained. " This," he observes, " is the great 

 gist of the charge against him. It is not so much that he is wroug in 

 his book (that however is alleged also), as that he has therein belied 

 his whole life. I believe, if he could venture to value himself upon 

 anything, it is on the virtue of consistency that he would value himself 

 the moat. Strip him of this, and you leave him naked indeed." 



We may safely venture to affirm that no person familiar with the 

 whole series of Mr. Burke's writings can demur to the substantial 

 soundness of the claim which he here puts forth. The soundness of 

 his political doctrines themselves is another question ; but, right or 

 wrong, there are certainly none inculcated in his writings subsequent 

 to the French revolution which can fairly be said to be contradictory 

 to those which he had maintained up to that event. His principles 

 were altogether averse to a purely democratic constitution of govern- 

 ment from the first. He always indeed denied that he was a man of 

 aristocratic inclination.", meaning by that one who favoured the 

 aristocratic more than the popular element in the constitution ; but 

 he no more for all that ever professed any wish wholly to extinguish 

 the former element than the latter. Thus in his speech on the repeal 

 of the Marriage Act in June 1781 he said: "I am accused, I am 

 told, abroad of being a man of aristocratic principles. If by aristocracy 

 they mean the peers, I have no vulgar admiration nor vulgar autipathy 

 towards them ; I hold their order in cold and decent respect. I hold 

 them to be of an absolute necessity in the constitution, but I think 

 they are only good when kept within their proper bounds." And the 

 work in which he may be said to have first made the profession of his 

 political faith, hU 'Thoughts on the Cause of the present Discontents,' 

 u certainly anything rather than a profession of democratic opinions. 



In fact, as is observed in the preface to the 'Observations on the 

 Conduct of the Minority,' "none of his writings on the French 

 revolution were ever pursued with a more violent cry than was that 

 pamphlet by the republicans of the day." 



The only respect in which his latest writings really differ from those 

 of earlier date is, that they evince a more excited sense of the dangers 

 of popular delusion and passion, and urge with much greater earnest- 

 ness the importance of those restraining institutions, which the author 

 conceives, and always did conceive, to bo necessary for the stability of 

 governments and the conservation of society. But this is nothing 

 more than the change of topic that is natural to a now occasion. It 

 is sufficiently accounted for and justified by what he says himself in 

 the last sentence of the ' Reflections,' where he describes his book as 

 containing the opinions of " one who wishes to preserve consistency 

 by varying his means to secure the unity of his end ; and, when the 

 equipoise of the vessel in which he sails may be endangered by over- 

 loading it upon one side, is desirous of carrying the small weight of 

 hia reasons to that which may preserve its equipoise." 



The position in which Mr. Burke was now placed had separated him 

 in fact, though not yet altogether in form, from the political party 

 with which he had hitherto acted. It is known however that long 

 after this time he still continued to urge a union between the ministers 

 and the opposition, including Mr. Fox. In February 1793, the war 

 with France, which he had for some years predicted as inevitable, 

 actually broke out. About the same time the first avowed breach 

 took place in the Whig Club, by the formal secession of Mr. Burke, 

 Mr. Wiudhain, and other members, to the number of forty-five iu all, 

 on the occasion of a resolution passed by the majority of the club, 

 which was construed as a declaration ou the side of Mr. Fox, in the 

 quarrel between Mr. Burke aud him. 



Mr. Burke meanwhile continued his exertions both with his pen 

 aud iu parliament with as much vigour as ever. The ' Appeal ' had 

 been followed iu December of the same year by a paper of consider- 

 able length, entitled ' Thoughts on French Affairs,' which however 

 was not published till after his death. A letter which he wrote about 

 the same time to the Empress of Russia, in acknowledgment of a 

 communication through the Comte de Woronzow of her Majesty's 

 thanks for his book ou the French Revolution, is printed among his 

 works. But, according to the Preface to the ' Observations ou the 

 Conduct of the Minority,' it was never sent, having been suppressed 

 by the advice of ministers, to whom it was shown, " in consequence 

 of some doubts which they entertained" "just doubts," it is added, 

 " as subsequent events have shown." He also wrote, among other 

 shorter pieces, in January 1792, the 'First Letter to Sir Hercules 

 Langrishe on the Catholic Disabilities;' in November of the same 

 year a paper entitled ' Hints for Consideration on the present State 

 of Affairs; ' in the beginning of 1793 a 'Letter on the subject of the 

 Popery Laws,' addressed to his sou, Mr. Richard Burke, who had lately 

 been appointed as;ent for the Irish Catholics; in October 1793, his 

 ' Remarks on the Policy of the Allies with respect to France;' and 

 soon after, ' A Prefatory Discourse to his relation Mr. William Burke's 

 Translation of M. Brissot's Address to his Coustitueuts.' 



He was now however anxious to retire from public life ; and au 

 arrangement having been made for his son to succeed hiui in the 

 representation of Malton, he only remained in parliament to conclude 

 the prosecution of Mr. Hastings. Accordingly, the last day on which 

 he appeared in. the House of Commons was the 20th of June 1794, 

 when the thanks of the house were voted to the managers of the 

 impeachment for their faithful discharge of the trust repoSed in tliem. 

 Mr. Richard Burke, wituiu a few days after his election for Malton, 

 was taken ill, and died on the 2ud of August, at the age of thirty-six. 

 From this severe blow his father never recovered. 



The division in the Whig party had been in the meantime extending 

 itself; aud Mr. Burke's friends, the Duke of Portland and Earl Fitz- 

 williarn, who had not thought proper to take part in the first seces- 

 sion, now not only left their old associates, but formally joined the 

 ministry. Immediately after the close of the session of parliament in. 

 July, these two noblemen, with Lord Spencer and Mr. Windham, took 

 office in the government. These arrangements are understood to 

 have been brought about principally through the interposition of Mr. 

 Burke. In October 1795, he received a pousion of 1200;. per annum 

 on the civil list, aud soon after another of 25001. on the four-and-a- 

 half per cent. fund. These grants are said to have originated in the 

 express wish of the king. 



An attack made upon him in the House of Lords ou the ground of 

 his pension, by the Duke of Bedford and the Earl of Lauderdale, drew 

 from him, early in 1793, his celebrated 'Letter to a Noble Lord' 

 (Earl Fitzwilliam), which was perhaps more generally read at the 

 time, and has continued to be to a greater extent popularly known 

 since, than anything else he ever wrote, with the exception of the 

 ' Reflections on the French Revolution.' 



His publisher on this occasion was I. Owen, of No. 1GS, Piccadilly, 

 who appears to have been recommended to him by Mr. Wiadham. 

 After some months, application being made to Owen for an account of 

 the profits, he asserted that he had received the manuscript as a present 

 from the author; and rather than go to law with him, Mr. Burke 

 chose to allow him to keep what he had got. Before this however 

 Owen had obtained the manuscript of another work from Burke, 



