GILRAY'S CARICATURE OF BURKE.

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It was not until after the part he took against the French Revolution-until, rather oddly, the time he really did advocate the cause of a Catholic clergy and nobility, viz. those of France, that

BURKE CARICATURED BY GILRAY.

the caricaturists of his day ceased to represent him in the garb of an ecclesiastic of the Church of Rome, or that the populace withdrew from him the nickname of "Neddy St. Omers,” taken from the great Jesuit college, a place he had actually never seen.

In one of his subsequent speeches in parliament, Burke thus feelingly alludes to his fortunate introduction to the Marquess of Rockingham:

"In the year '65, being in a very private station, far enough from any line of business, and not having the honour of a seat in this house, it was my fortune, unknowing and unknown to the then ministry, by the intervention of a common friend, to become connected with a very noble person, and at the head of the Treasury department. It was indeed in a situation of little rank and no consequence, suitable to the mediocrity of my talents and pretensions, but a situation near enough to enable me to see, as well as others, what was going on; and I did see in that noble person (Lord Rockingham) such sound principles, such an enlargement of mind, such clear and sagacious sense, and such unshaken fortitude, as have bound me, as well as others much better than me, by an inviolable attachment to him from that time forward."

BURKE IN PARLIAMENT THE DISPUTE WITH AMERICA-BURKE'S FIRST SPEECH-HIS ENERGY IN SUPPORT OF MINISTRY-HIS CONFERENCE WITH WILKES TERMINATION OF THE ROCKINGHAM ADMINISTRATION BURKE'S PAMPHLET IN ITS DEFENCE THE PITT AND GRAFTON MINISTRY-BURKE'S ELOQUENCE TOUCHING LORD CHATHAM AND CHARLES TOWNSHEND-DISSOLUTION OF PARLIAMENT BURKE AGAIN ELECTED FOR WENDOVER-PAMPHLET ON THE STATE OF THE NATION-LORD

CHATHAM'S RESIGNATION-WILKES-JUNIUS-LIBEL BILL-DISSENTERS -" THOUGHTS ON THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS"-SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION CHARLES FOX-BURKE'S ELECTION FOR MALTON AND BRISTOL SPEECH ON AMERICAN CONCILIATION-DR. JOHNSON'S PAMPHLET AMERICAN WAR-ECONOMICAL REFORM-GORDON RIOTSSLAVE-TRADE ABOLITION-DIFFERENCE WITH BRISTOL CONSTITUENTS HOWARD BURKE'S RETIREMENT FROM BRISTOL, AND RE-ELECTION FOR MALTON-FAILURE OF MINISTERIAL MEASURES WITH REGARD TO AMERICA ACCESSION OF THE ROCKINGHAM ADMINISTRATION-BURKE PAYMASTER OF THE FORCES HIS PROCEEDINGS-DEATH OF THE MARQUESS OF ROCKINGHAM-HIS MAUSOLEUM AT WENTWORTH PARK-SHELBURNE MINISTRY-PEACE WITH AMERICA.

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for a

WHEN the eloquence of Edmund Burke came upon the ear of Parliament, it was indeed a time, to use his own words, man to act in." The political world then bore a gloomy and frowning aspect. It was the year 1765. George III. had been but a short time on the throne, when he found himself obliged to contend with the dominion of the aristocracy, and to experience the strength of the people. His favourite, the Earl of Bute, arbitrarily made minister, and afterwards a comptroller of ministers, was about to succumb to the oligarchy, and leave to it the struggle for place and power. John Wilkes, the unworthy instrument of a great cause, had just taught a startling lesson of what danger lay in invading the security of the British hearth, or the freedom of the British press. These were lesser troubles: one giant event was to crush them into minor significance. The fated act which declared it proper to charge certain stamp-duties in the colonies and plantations of America had passed; the colonists were men of a caste and temper not to submit: the storm of discontent had begun, rife with rebellion and redolent of revolution. The Grenville administration, though strong in kingly favour, and in the eloquence of Charles Townshend, shrunk from the very outburst of the tempest. The public looked to Pitt; but the king disliked and feared the future Earl of Chatham. Before employing him again, his majesty sought aid elsewhere. The king's uncle, the

AMERICA AND THE STAMP ACT.

55

Duke of Cumberland, the victor of Culloden, opened a negotiation with the least democratic section of the Whigs, and another administration not altogether unpalatable to the royal taste came into office. This was the ministry of Lord Rockingham, in which, besides himself, were the Dukes of Newcastle and Grafton-all mere feebleness but for one man, the premier's untried secretary.

The sentiments of two opposing parties rendered the situation of Lord Rockingham extremely delicate and difficult. On the one hand, the Grenville body, the devisers of taxation and the framers of the Stamp Act, insisted on its continuance and on coercive measures; on the other, the haughty Pitt and his adherents would have the Stamp Act absolutely repealed, and would have publicly asserted, at the same time, the right of the British parliament to legislate for the Americans in all matters whatsoever, except in taxing them without their own consent. Lord Rockingham consulted for the first time with his secretary; and Burke's + advice was, "to choose a middle course between the opposite extremes: neither to precipitate affairs with the colonists by rash counsels; nor to sacrifice the dignity of the crown and nation by irresolution or weakness." This advice carries the very stamp of Burke's policy. His principle was always to apply a practical remedy to a practical grievance, and never to discuss abstract principles, or, at all events, not before the most imperious necessity compelled such course. A plan was formed consonant to Burke's opinion. To gratify America, the Stamp Act was to be repealed; to vindicate the honour of Britain, a law was to be passed declaring her right to legislate for America in taxation and all cases whatsoever. With this scheme, ministry met Parliament on the 17th December, 1765; and on the 14th January, of the following year, the real business of the session commenced. Bills following the plan decided on were forthwith brought in by government. The Stamp Act was to disappear, but the omnipotent authority of Parliament was to be maintained. Intense interest attached to the debate