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gers to which he was exposed. Walter and Hugo, after having secured Fitzalan, proceeded to give the baron an account of the success of their miffion.

(To be continued.)

A CHARACTER

OF THE

RIGHT HONOURABLE EDMUND BURKE,
(Never before published.)

On the Occafion of his celebrated Letter to the Duke of Bedford.
BY THE LATE RIGHT HON.W.G. HAMILTON *,

The reputed Author of the Letters of Junius.

E DMUND Burke, not a foldier, but a politician of fortune, çame over to this country with the fame laudable views which actuate the vast numbers of his countrymen who emigrate; namely, to raise a fortune and a name, by the exercise of their talents and their industry. His own native merits were such as could scarce fail of distinction in any country, least of all in this, where industrious defert never misses its reward. Befides, happily, the mauvaise honte is not numbered among the blemishes of the Irish character. Irishmen do not,

* He was usually denominated fingle-speech Hamilton; of which he was once put in mind by Mr. Bruce, when, on an infinuation of Mr. Hamilton's, "that it was highly improbable any man should make such fine drawings, as Mr. B. exhibited for his own, without ever being known to excel in design;" Mr. Bruce faid" Pray, fir, did you not once make a famous speech in the House of Commons?" "Yes, I did." -"And pray, fir, did you ever make another?"-" No, I did not." He died on the 16th day of August 1796, in his 69th year. ED.

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* ordinarily, ordinarily, hide their talents under a bushel. Mr. Burke, without any disadvantageous profundity of genius, or (perhaps) integrity of character, poffeffed that which is fo rarely united in the fame man, the two-fold advantage of eloquence, both of the tongue and pen; of the latter, in a degree superior to any cotemporary. This is not the place to inquire into the phenomena of human intellect, or to attempt the solution of that difficult problem, how minds, of apparently the most vigorous and extensive cast, like that of Burke, and many others, should be totally incompetent to the task of difcrimination in certain cafes, and so generally backward and defective in the comprehenfion of first principles.

Mr. Burke was, at no rate, of a disposition to step one single degree without those facred bounds of religion, philofophy, or politics, prescribed by the school in which he had been bred; and indeed within those bounds, he found ample scope for his imagination to range in, fertile and extenfive as it was. His interest too, and that of the order to which he aspired to belong, would, no doubt, naturally strengthen his conviction. All history and experience taught him that the world ever had been governed by aristocracy, which was fully fufficient to determine a man of his character and views, that it ever ought. His fortune first led him into the service of those who opposed the American war. It was "but the twinkling of a star" that made him the friend of America. Had his interest and his connections laid on the other fide, those who have reflected upon his fubfequent conduct, can feel no difficulty in convincing themselves, that he would have been as violent an advocate for the American, as he has fince been for the French War. He was then young enough for his mind to have imbibed a tincture from the political company he kept. After all, though the friend and advocate of America, he, at the fame time, denied the justice of that claim for which the Ameri-. cans fought; the happy predicament of many of the political

political infants of that day, who sweetly prattled of taxation and representation, and understood very little of either the one or the other.

It was chance, also, which made Mr. Burke a refor mer. His great connections, some of whom had, un.. doubtedly, good intentions towards their country, were of opinion that a reform of some kind had become absolutely neceffary. The very words-liberty and reform-are of prime confideration in the vocabulary of a patriot, and the great patriot in question was never niggard of them, as long as they could serve his turn. A true disciple of St. Paul, and as capable as that great apoftle, of "being all things to all men," now that he has, for the good of his dear country, affociated with men to whom liberty and reform are an antidote, he has intirely abandoned the use of them, both in name and substance.

Confidering the country from whence he sprang, Mr. Burke has certainly, on one occafion, exhibited fome traits of becoming modesty of character. Unlike many of his precurfors and his pupils, in the course of oppofition-patriotism, who, their ends once obtained, never afterwards mention the word reformation, unless to expatiate upon the great danger of it to a state, whether in peace or war; he thought it prudent to save appearances, and really laboured with commendable industry, in the operation of reforms of a certain species. These, however, he took especial care should be of that kind which could not endanger, for indeed they did not concern, the facred foundations of our political conftitution. As little did they concern the interests of the people, who, as far as ever I could learn, were generally ignorant of their nature and intent, and totally indifferent as to their issue. They were felt, I suppose, in the public offices, and in the king's kitchen; and possibly might contribute, for an hour or two, to enliven the natural infipidity of drawing-room conversation, In those circles, Mr. Burke's wonderful reforms,

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forms, which "faved the nation," are no doubt still remembered, and possibly with respect; but had not himself taken the trouble to blazon them forth, or rather to point them out, the stupid and ungrateful people had remained totally ignorant of his services, and insensible of their own confequent salvation.

In one of his late addresses to the ungrateful country, in the shape of a pamphlet, what a tremendous storm has the wizard Burke conjured up, and how easily has he allayed it with the touch of his magic wand. He brings the people of three mighty kingdoms to the very brink of civil blood, havoc, and confufion, and, in the very moment of impending destruction, calms their boiling rage, allays their terrors, and fatisfies their fierce defires; How?-patriotic reader, how?-By methodizing the office of paymaster-general, and regulating the establishment of his majesty's civil list!!! -Greater than Tom Thumb the Great, the wonderworker Edmund, created ten thousand proper giants, and then he killed them. He discovered an invisible conflagration, which, with its mighty extent, was to envelope and devour whole nations; and he extinguish. ed it with a school-boy's squirt!

Making all possible allowance for the inbred vanity of the man, for the vaunting garrulity of old age, for the eagerness to catch at the fhadow of exculpation, under a latent, jealous sense of guilt, -is it poffible ? can we credit our eyes, or our understandings, when they inform us, that Mr. Burke, with all that pene- per trative power of mind, with all that fagacity, for which he has been so long distinguished, could publish, by way of erecting trophies to his character, such puerile, fuch pitiable abfurdities? Were that at all needful in these days of infatuation, he has helped us to an additional and powerful argument, in proof proof of the pofition-that a man of great talents, under the controul of intereft and prejudice, may reason like a madman, and act like a fool.

This

This saviour of his country, "in one feffion, made an analysis of the whole commercial, financial, constitutional, and foreign interests of Great Britain and its empire." He studied, it seems, political economy from his very early youth, to near the end of his services in parliament. Yet, strange to tell, notwithstanding his recondite studies, and his laborious services, our commercial and financial systems are still labouring and sinking under inveterate errors and corruptions, both in principle and practice; and, for our conftitutional and foreign interests, so egregiously and wilfully have they been mistaken, that we have obviously lost our former high rank among the nations, and have idly bartered away for a shadow, the internal tranquillity of the country. How unprofitably, then (alas! that I could stop there) both for his country and mankind at large, has the life of this brilliant genius been spent!and yet, let us not say, that Edmund Burke hath lived in vain. He shall stand recorded to posterity as an eminent example of the inutility and danger of great and shining talents, when unaccompanied with found judgment, or alienated from the sacred cause of truth. He shall be read with caution as an author, whose wanton and glowing imagery, magically embodied in the sweetest, most appropriate, and most harmonious language, serves only to epicurize the taste, mislead the judgment, and corrupt the heart. He shall be numbered among those who swim with an amazing speed, strength, and compass upon the furface, and in the middle regions of the sea of knowledge; but who do not possess either weight, power, or inclination, sufficient to fathom its depth; fuch, as like ignes fatui, bewitch and fafcinate the fouls of men, not seldom to their utter undoing; among that dangerous race, in short, which seems to justify the wisdom of the old Grecian legiflator, who banished eloquence from his commonwealth.

GARRICK's

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