House, and universal applause outside the walls. The bills brought in in consequence, were argued diligently, clause by clause, during March, April, and May. But in the end the motion met its natural fate. Opposition had probably used it, from the beginning, more as a means of assault than an object of success. Its popula rity was of importance to them; yet its triumph might have been distasteful. A measure which stripped all administrations of so large a share of patronage, could not be ardently supported by men who hourly expected to seat themselves on the Ministerial throne. The battle soon began to be fought more languidly. The clause for abolishing the third Secretaryship of State was lost by a majority of seven. Within a short period the leading clauses followed its fate, and the bill died away.

CHAPTER VI.

Public Opinion of the Speech- On Economical Reform—Eloquence of Public Men-Burke retires from Bristol-Fine Sketch of Howard The Borough System-Crabbe the Poet-Character of Fox-Modern Whiggism.

THE object of Opposition was fully obtained by the celebrity of the attempt. It had given them a cheap opportunity of declaring their patriotism; it had enlisted the popular cry on their side; and pledging them to nothing but an indefinite zeal, and an impracticable purification, it gave party all the advantage of promises never to be performed, and virtues which cost them only words. Burke was probably sincere. He was an enthusiast. His poetic ardour dazzled himself, he saw nothing in the universal clearance of corruption, as it was termed, but the restoration of an age of political righteousness. His friends, generally profligate in their private lives, and abandoned in their political views,-philosophers and patriots when out of place ; rash, tyrannical, and corrupt when in,—were rejoiced to find so unsuspicious a pleader for their cause. But the sequel shewed, how little they had in common with the loftiness and magnanimity of his mind. In the

brief success, which at once raised them to power, and stamped the name of the Coalition with eternal ignominy; their great champion was almost totally neglected. His virtue was not to be trusted with the subtleties of the Cabinet; he had exhibited a simplicity of principle fit only to be scoffed at by political gamesters; he was characterised as too wrongheaded to take persuasion from his palm; and, accordingly, he was thrust into a subordinate office, which only reluctance to seem craving for power prevented him from rejecting;—the banner which had waved so richly before them in the battle, prophetic of victory, was folded up and flung into a corner, until the time when they should again be forced to the field. But if the insulted statesman could be recompensed by national admiration, his speech brought him an almost endless harvest of praise. Parliament, the people, all Europe, received it with boundless applause. "The speech which has been delivered this night," exclaimed Dunning, of all critics the most cautious, and of all admirers the most reluctant,"must remain as a monument to be handed down to posterity, of the honourable member's uncommon zeal, unrivalled industry, astonishing abilities, and invincible perseverance. He had undertaken a task big with labour and difficulty, a task that embraced a variety of the most important, extensive, and complicated objects. Yet such were the unequalled abilities, so extraordinary the talents and ingenuity, and such the fortunate frame of the honourable tleman's mind, his vast capacity and happy conception,

that, in his hands, what must have proved a vast heap of ponderous matter, composed of heterogeneous ingredients, discordant in their nature and opposite in principle, was so skilfully arranged, as to become quite simple as to each respective part, and the whole at the same time so judiciously combined, as to present nothing to almost any mind tolerably intelligent, to divide, puzzle, or distract it."

This opinion was echoed and re-echoed through the country; all expressed their delight and astonishment at the unexampled combination of eloquence, labour, and perseverance, displayed on the Bill. Even the slow good-will of those whose emoluments he had placed in hazard was not refused to this fine performance; they acknowledged the glitter of the lance which pierced them. Like the knights of old, if they must yield, their defeat was alleviated by the rank and prowess of the chieftain to whom they surrendered. Gibbon, then one of the Board of Trade, the only establishment which the speech succeeded in extinguishing; and succeeded, probably, only through the Minister's previous determination to get rid of an encumbrance; gave his tribute in his own formal yet forcible style, “ Mr Burke's reform bill was framed with skill, introduced with eloquence, and supported by numbers. Never can I forget the delight with which that diffusive and ingenious orator was heard by all sides of the House, and even by those whose existence he proscribed."

The labour to which he submitted on this occasion

can be conceived only by those who have known the difficulties through which public documents at this period were attainable; the infinite confusion of the national records; the quick jealousies of official persons; the perplexity of the documents themselves, and the general incrustation of time, change, obscurity, and obsoleteness, from which they were to be cleared. By nothing less than indefatigable diligence could even this have been effected; but to render the obscure plain, to give interest to the dull, to concentrate the whole mass of detail, confusion, and commonplace, into spirit and splendour, was the work of genius alone.

Still the speech has obvious faults, in a critical point of view. Gibbon's epithet, of diffusive, is its true censure. The exordium is too long. The Orator treads too tenderly, and too tardily, on his ground. No advantages of caution can compensate for the feeling of disappointment with which hearers, longing for facts, find themselves compelled to listen to theorems.-The placeman, anxious for the safety of his office, and the patriot, eager to commence the work of renovation, must have equally desired to see the Orator enter upon his detail, and been equally repelled by the long review of abstract principles, marshalled with whatever skill, and illustrated with whatever brilliancy.

He

Even the powerful knowledge and rich imagination of Burke, embarrassed his effect in Parliament. could not prevail on himself to discover the injury, which is done to a cause by giving his hearers credit for too much taste, feeling, or knowledge. He over