Mr. Bur! 0,1 



independence ; but these perhaps were not his 

 real unbiassed opinions, as I have ever regarded 

 him to be a whig from interest, though a tory 

 in principle. In the religious as well as political 

 tenets, by which his conduct was governed, he 

 was equally intolerant. This opinion is con- 

 firmed by circumstances which fell under my 

 observation in the spring of 179O, when the 

 Duke of Athol's claims on the Isle of Man 

 were under examination. I then frequently 

 saw Mr. Burke, and being asked to breakfast 

 with him, to meet a professor from the Univer- 

 sity of Leipsic at his house in Gerard-street, 

 the conversation principally turned on the state 

 of the German Empire, and the views and con- 

 duct of the lllurninati. Mr. Burke considered 

 their influence to be of a very extensive and 

 dangerous nature, and that the Emperor Joseph 

 had been made their dupe ; that the changes in 

 Bohemia, emancipating the people from feudal 

 oppression, had been at the instigation of the 

 flluminati, and to them were attributable the 

 subsequent disturbances. 



Though completely ignorant, at that perjod, 

 of every matter relative to farming, I had been 

 much pleased with the appearance of Bohemia, 

 where the industry and energy of -the people 

 seemed to be greater ; and, as iar as superficial 



