wish that in the discharge of my debts the course hitherto pursued may be as nearly as possible observed. Sensible, however, that in payment of debt no exact rule can be preserved, the same is therefore left to her discretion, with the advice of our friends, whom she will naturally consult. The reason of my making this will or codicil to my former will, is from my having omitted, in devising by that will my lands and hereditaments to my wife aforesaid, the full and absolute property thereof, and therein I have omitted the legal words of inheritance. Now, though I think those words, however ne cessary in a deed, are not so in a will; yet, to prevent all questions, I do hereby devise all my lands, tenements, and hereditaments, as well as all other property that may be subject to a strict rule of law in deeds, and which would pass if undevised to my heirs, I say I do devise the same lands, tenements, and hereditaments, to my wife, Jane Mary Burke, and her heirs for ever, in pure, absolute, and unconditional fee simple.

"I have now only to recommend to the kindness of my Lord Chancellor (Lord Loughborough), to his Grace the Duke of Portland, to the Most Honourable the Marquis of Buckingham, to the Right Honourable William Windham, and to Dr. Lawrence, of the Commons, and Member of Parliament, that they will, after my death, continue their protec,

tion tion and favour to the emigrant school at Penn, and will entreat, with a weight on which I dare not presume, the Right Honourable William Pitt to continue the necessary allowance which he has so generously and charitably provided for those unhappy children of meritorious parents; and that they will superintend the same; which I wish to be under the immediate care and protection of Dr. Walker King and Dr. Lawrence; and that they will be pleased to exert their influence to place the said young persons in some military corps, or some other service, as may best suit their dispositions and capacities, praying God to bless their endeavours.

Signed and sealed as a codicil to my will, or an explanation and confirmation thereof, agreeably to the note placed at the end of it, this 30th day of January,

1795.

"In the presence of

WALKER KING,

RICHARD BURKE,

EDWARD NAGLE."

EDMUND PURKE."

Mr. Burke was about five feet ten inches high, well made and muscular; of that firm and compact frame that denotes more strength than bulk. His countenance, I am told, had been in his youth handsome. The expression of his face was less striking than one, who had not

seen him, would have anticipated. During the vigour of his age he had excelled at the manly exercises most common in Ireland, especially leaping, pitching the bar, and throwing the

stone.

No charge has been more frequently made against Burke than one that would affect either his intellectual or moral character, or both. This was the charge of INCONSISTENCY. The unjustness of this charge has, I trust, appeared through this narration. The more fully we consider his principles, reasonings, and conduct, the more minutely we examine the parts, the more comprehensively we contemplate the whole, the more completely shall we see that Burke has been, in his intellectual processes, in his moral and political conduct, uniformly CONSISTENT. "LET EXPERIENCE BE YOUR GUIDE, AVOID UNTRIED SPECULATIONS.” That maxim governed his reasonings respecting America. 66 Experience (he said) has shewn you that your former mode of treating your colonies has been beneficial; do not change that mode for an untried theory of taxation." Experience taught him that religion was friendly to virtue and order. The lesson taught by his exposure of the Bolingbroke philosophy was, "Do not for speculations of infidelity abandon those principles of religion which experience has taught you to be necessary to good government, virtue, and happiness." In his

letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol he speaks the same language. "Some men propose untried speculations on the rights of man as the foundation of government. 1 reprobate these notions, because not sanctioned by experience." On the French revolution, his doctrine is, "religion, justice, and regard to property, have been proved by experience to be necessary to the well being of society. I reprobate a system' that disregards these principles; because, following my constant guide, experience, I per ceive that the new theory and practice must be pernicious." He preserved consistency, by vary ing his means to secure the unity of his end: when the equipoise of the vessel in which he sailed was endangered by overloading it upon one side, he carried the weight of his reasons to that which might preserve the equipoise. These were the rules of his judgment and con-: duct. Adopting and applying these rules from the beginning to the end of his intellectual, moral, and political efforts, EDMUND BURKE WAS

CONSISTENT.

Having already endeavoured, in the course of this narrative, to exhibit the prominent features of Burke's intellectual and moral charac ter, I shall conclude with a brief summary, which will merely collect my scattered observations.

Edmund Burke was endowed by nature, in a most extraordinary degree, with that combina

tion of powers which constitutes genius: an un derstanding rapidly penetrating, energetic, comprehensive, and profound; a memory, quick, retentive, and capacious; a fancy vivid, versatile, rapid, and forcible. Art and discipline improved these powers, and furnished them with ample materials. Those who have partially considered the operations of Burke's genius have supposed his fancy to have predominated; but a more thorough acquaintance with his mental operations would convince them that, though his fancy ranges through every region of knowledge, and soars to every height of science, for amusement, embellishment, allusion, or analogy ; yet reason is the faculty that presides in his intellectual processes. Whatever sportive, beautiful, or grand imagery may decorate his works, the body is history and deduction, antecedent and consequent. Disciplined by the soundest philosophy, his ratiocinative operations proceed from principles the most efficacious in the investigation of truth and conveyance of instruc-. tion. The great guide of his reasoning is EXPERIENCE; an experience not merely of model, but of law, comprehending not merely individual governments and societies, but the constitution of man. This was the light by which he saw the effects of Bolingbroke's speculations. This shewed him the consequences of the new philosophy of France, sixteen years before it was reduced to practice. This pointed out the