so much assiduity that his health suffered, though his habits are said to have been strictly temperate. His medical attendant, Dr. Nugent, advised rest and tranquillity, and invited him to pass some time at his house, where Burke received the kindest treatment. He thus became acquainted with Miss Nugent, the physician's daughter. An attachment sprang up between them, and they were soon afterwards married. He spent the remaining 37 years of his life with her in uninterrupted domestic happiness, and in latter years, when political adversaries vented slander on his head, he used to say that "in all the most anxious moments of his public life, every care vanished the moment he entered his own house." He was through life an assiduous worker, took wine sparingly, and is said not to have understood a single game at cards.

Having, it is said, (but Dugald Stewart contradicts the statement,) unsuccessfully stood candidate for the Chair of Logic in Glasgow University, he settled down to literary exertion in London, and seems to have formed a dislike for legal studies. He entertained for some time an idea of trying his fortune in the North American Colonies, but did not carry it into execution, as his father, towards whom he felt a most affectionate regard, opposed the project. Had he gone there is little doubt that in the contest of 1776 he would have manfully asserted the principles, which have consecrated to undying fam the memory of that great national struggle. Providence, however, designed him for another part in the same great drama, and destined him to defend with wondrous eloquence, in another hemisphere, the sacred principles which George Washington guarded with his sword. At his father's desire he abandoned his intention. His letter on this occasion is a beautiful and affectionate production: "May God," he writes to his father who was ill, "make your disorder lighter every moment, and continue to you and my mother many happy years, and every blessing I ought to wish you for your care, your tenderness, and your indulgence to me." Such words from a man of 25 show how deeply rooted was filial affection in the heart of Edmund Burke.

B

The time had now come when Burke resolved on entering the field of literature with some production more likely, than coutributions to periodical publications, to gain him a name, and he accordingly published an ironical essay entitled "A Vindication of Natural Society," in which he attacked the philosophy of Lord Bolingbroke. The style is a close imitation of that of Lord Bolingbroke, and the mode of reasoning adopted is by adopting that writer's opinions to push them to absurd conclusions. The work proves Burke's extensive historical information, his extraordinary powers of imitation, and (though it is evidently the production of a mind not yet fully matured), his clear judgment in tracing out many of the causes which produce evil in society.

Burke soon afterwards published his beautiful "Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful," a work which stamped him as a deep thinker, and which soon obtained a place amongst the standard classical productions of the language. In this work Burke proved himself a clearsighted observer of nature, and a philosophic investigator of her workings. Whether considered as a literary composition or as a vehicle of scientific thoughts, it must always command admiration. It displays learning without pedantry, and an inventive imagination without excessive exuberance of fancy. "Burke's Essay," said Samuel Johnson, "is an example of true criticism." Burke's father was so pleased with the work that he sent a present of £100 as a token of his admiration, which sum, though in one sense not very large, was most welcome to the young philosopher, upon whom some urgent pecuniary demands pressed at the time. These he discharged by means of his father's present and the sale of the "Essay." He now took his place as the acknowledged possessor of learning and talent. This period was the time from which his greatness dated. From this epoch in his life his fame went on increasing, and his friendship was sought for by the leading intellectual men of the age, Johnson, Goldsmith, and Sir Joshua Reynolds were amongst his most intimate associates. Of Burke Johnson spoke in terms of great admiration, though they differed widely on many of the leading public questions of the time,

and one of his remarks on the great statesman was, that 66 one could not take shelter with him from a shower of rain under a gateway without in a few minutes perceiving his vast superiority over common men."

History was the study in which Burke most delighted, and he dived into its depths with increasing industry. In 1758 he proposed to Dodsley, the well-known London publisher, a work to be called "The Annual Register," containing an account of the principal events of the time. An arrangement was entered into, and the work was written for many years by Burke. The minute investigation of contemporary history which such a work demanded was, no doubt, one of the causes of Burke's intimate knowledge of the events, both domestic and foreign, of the age in which he lived.

Burke soon afterwards entered on that sphere of action which he was destined to adorn, and it was in his native country that his political life began. When Lord Halifax became Viceroy of Ireland, Burke was appointed private secretary to the Lord Lieutenant's secretary, "Single Speech" Hamilton; so called from having delivere one good speech in England, and (but this is untrue) the same amount of oratory in Ireland. Some said that it was to Edmund Burke the world was virtually indebted for Hamilton's speeches, but there is not sufficient authority for this supposition. Burke obtained a pension of £300 a-year, but as soon as he found that its acceptance involved a course of action inconsistent with personal independence, he flung it away. He did not, however, publicly announce his doing so, and it is only from one of his letters to Flood that the fact has been ascertained. On his return to England, he resumed his contributions to the periodical press, and in 1765 he became acquainted with the Marquis of Rockingham, which circumstance proved to be an era in his life. When the Marquis was appointed prime minister, he named Burke as his private secretary. It soon became evident that the presence of a man of such talent would be serviceable to ministers; and, accordingly, through the influence of Lord Verney, Burke was returned to parliament in 1765, for the borough

of Wendover, in Buckinghamshire; and thus entered on a career destined to link his name with the history of the empire.

In his new position, Burke, instead of relaxing his efforts, applied himself with redoubled energy to his studies. He employed his time in the close study of those authors who were most likely to perfect his style, and impart solid information. He even joined, it is said, a debating society in London, and prepared himself for its mimic. contests with most pains-taking care. His first speech in the House of Commons was in 1765, on the usual motion for the address in reply to the royal speech. He dwelt with much force on the American question, the question of the hour; and his speech was honoured with the praise of the elder Pitt, afterwards Earl of Chatham. Burke advised Lord Rockingham to repeal the stamp act, but to this advice he added, it is said, that of passing an act declaratory of the right of Great Britain to tax the colonies. The stamp act was repealed, but the declaratory act asserting the right to tax, proved, in the event, by no means a useful measure. We must, however, recollect, that we are writing of 1765, not of 1776; and that, at the former period, America had not as yet assumed the tone, which, in a few short years, led to her independence as a nation. No statesman in England, not even the great Pitt, could clearly see his way to a solution of the American difficulty.

In 1768 great excitement prevailed in England from many causes. Tidings of American discontent came by each ship which crossed the Atlantic. A dearth of provisions in England led to several riots; and in the House of Commons the expulsion of Wilkes, and his re-election, roused the angry passions of conflicting parties. Burke, though he could not, as a religious man, admire the personal character of Wilkes, was opposed to the measures which were adopted against im. He went with Lord Rockingham into opposition, when that nobleman's administration broke up, and the Duke of Grafton became minister under the supposed guidance of Chatham, who, however, for some time retired from public affairs in consequence of cabinet disputes. Burke was recognised as the ablest man in the oppo

sition benches, and distinguished himself by the display of vigorous powers, and a cultivated mind. It was the Grafton administration which he afterwards described with such sarcastic ridicule in his speech on American taxation, as the "truckle-bed ministry," in which so strangely heterogeneous a mixture was found together. It was about this period that Burke purchased the estate of Beaconsfield for £23,000; of which sum a portion was lent to him by the Marquis of Rockingham.

The first of Burke's great political pamphlets made its appearance at this period, under the title of "Thoughts on the Causes of the Present Discontents." In this able production he inveighs with considerable force against the machinations of a certain clique which ruled the administration in a covert manner, and which was known as the "inner cabinet." In the debates on subjects relating to the liberty of the press, Burke took a prominent part, and when a printer, named Almon, was prosecuted for republishing Junius' letter to the king, Burke supported those who endeavoured to narrow the powers of the crown.

In the entire range of literary controversy, no question has ever elicited a greater variety of arguments than that of the authorship of the famous "Letters of Junius. These matchless productions appeared at various intervals from 1769 till 1771. The boldness of their tone, the beauty of their language, and the felicity of the illustrations with which they abounded, joined to the fact that they were levelled at a most unpopular administration, (that of the Duke of Grafton) gave them an immediate and firm hold on public attention. All these characteristics conspired to create the general belief that Burke was Junius. Into this controversy we have not space to enter, but will simply say that, in addition to Burke's solemn denial of the truth of this opinion, there are in the Letters some passages which defend a policy to which it is well known that Burke was not friendly. The strongest evidence of authorship is in favour of Francis, another Irishman. The following remarks on Junius are to be found in some editions of Burke's speeches. They are said to have been delivered in 1770 in support of a bill to