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MEMOIR

OF THE POLITICAL LIFE

OF THE RIGHT HON.

EDMUND BURKE.

CHAPTER I.

Value of Biography-Birth of Burke-Early Scenery-EducationFondness for Milton-Destined to the Bar-Arrival in London— Proposes to go to America-Attacks Bolingbroke-Johnson's praise of Burke-Earl of Charlemont-Connexion with Single-Speech Hamilton.

THE people of England are attached to liberty, and they are made for it. They have, by nature, a gravity of mind, which tends to save them from political rashness. They have a manliness which repels dishonourable submission to force. Thus, superior by their original temperament, alike to the extravagances of democracy, and to the severities of despotism, they alone, of all European nations, have been qualified to build up that last and noblest labour of utility and virtue, a free Constitution.

Yet while nations are composed of men, they must be liable to error. Opinion must exhibit those currents and changes which defy, or astonish, the wisdom

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of the wise. Strong temptations to hasty aggrandizement, or rash terrors of public loss, must try the practical knowledge of the state; and England, with all her experience, vigour, and virtue, must take her share in those contingencies which compel nations to revert to first principles, and refresh their declining years by draughts from the original fountains of their fame. It is for such purposes that the lover of his country peculiarly values history. He opens the door of that great repository of the crime and frailties, of the genius and power, of ages which have gone down to the grave; less to gaze on them as curious specimens of the past, than as true instructors of the present. He sees in their configuration the secrets of the living frame, the sources of actual public strength, the organs of national renown, the fine impulses which give activity and force to the whole animated system of Empire.

But the most effectual portion of history is that which gives down great men to the future; for it furnishes the mind of the rising generation with a model on which it can shape itself at once. The embodied virtue of the champion of truth and freedom there stands before us; the progress of ability and learning, of generous ambition and faithful principle, is displayed to the eye in all its successions; there is nothing ideal, nothing to be made up by fancy, or left to chance. The standard of excellence is palpable to the touch ; and men can scarcely look upon this illustrious evi-. dence of human capabilities, without unconsciously emulating its labours, and sharing its superiority.

In giving a rapid view of the life of the celebrated

BURKE, these pages are less anxious to render the due tribute to his talents, than to his principles. His genius has long gained for itself the highest prize of fame. In an age eminent for intellectual distinction, Burke vindicated to himself the admiration of Europe. Owing nothing of his celebrity to birth, opulence, or official rank, he required none of those adventitious supports, to rise and move at ease in the highest regions of public effect, dignity, and renown. There was no fear that his plumage would give way in either the storm or the sunshine; those are the casualties of inferior powers. He had his share of both, the tempest, and that still more perilous trial, which has melted down the virtue of so many aspiring spirits in the favour of cabinets. But Burke grew purer, and more powerful for good, to his latest moment; he constantly rose more and more above the influence of party, until at last the politician was elevated into the philosopher; and in that loftier atmosphere, from which he looked down on the cloudy and turbulent contests of the time, he soared upward calmly in the light of truth, and became more splendid at every wave of his wing.

This is no exaggeration of his singular ability, or of its course. Of all the memorable men of his day, Burke is the only orator, whose eloquence has been incorporated into the wisdom of his country. His great contemporaries grappled triumphantly with the emergencies of the hour, and having achieved the exploit of the hour, were content with what they had done. But it is palpable, that Burke in every instance

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