our all. Good God! Mr. Speaker, are we yet to be told of the rights for which we went to war? Oh, excellent rights! Oh, valuable rights! Valuable you should be, for we have paid dear at parting with you. Oh, valuable rights! that have cost Britain thirteen provinces, four islands, a hundred thousand men, and more than seventy millions of money! Oh, wonderful rights! that have lost to Great Britain her empire on the ocean, her boasted, grand, and substantial superiority, which made the world bend before her! Oh, inestimable rights! that have taken from us our rank among nations, our importance abroad and our happiness at home; that have taken from us our trade, our manufactures, and our commerce; that have reduced us from the most flourishing empire in the world, to be one of the most compact, unenviable powers on the face of the globe! Oh, wonderful rights! that are likely to take from us all that yet remains!

"What were these rights? Can any man describe them? Can any man give them a body and soul, a tangible substance, answerable to all these mighty costs? We did all this because we had a right to do it; that was exactly the fact-' And all this we dared to do because we dared.'

"We had a right to tax America, says the noble lord, and as we had a right, we must do it. We must risk every thing, forfeit every thing, think of no consequences, take no consideration into view but our right; consult no ability, nor measure our right with our power, but must have our right. Oh, miserable and infatuated ministers! miserable and undone country! not to know that right signifies nothing without might, that the claim without the power of enforcing it was nugatory and idle in the copyhold of rival states, or of immense bodies of people. Oh! says a silly man full of his prerogative of dominion over a few beasts of the field, there is excellent wool on the back of a wolf, and therefore he must be sheared. What! shear a wolf? But will he comply? Have you considered the trouble? How will you get this wool? Oh, I have considered nothing, and I will consider nothing but my right; a wolf is an animal that has wool; all animals that have wool are to be shorn, and therefore I will shear the wolf. This was just the kind of reasoning urged by the minister, and this the counsel he had given.'

Yes.

The omission in Lord Cornwallis's capitulation of any article to secure the American loyalists serving in the British army from the vengeance of their countrymen, formed another topic of indignant reproach with Mr. Burke. Next day he returned to the charge with undiminished spirit; followed in a few days by two renewals of the motion respecting St. Eustatius; a general feeling existing that the people of that island had been unjustifiably treated, which the heavy damages afterwards awarded by

juries against the commanders, naval and military, served to confirm.

Shortly afterwards he presented a petition to the House, privately conveyed to him, written on the blank leaf of an octavo volume with black lead pencil (pen and ink being denied him), from Mr. Laurens, American Envoy to Holland, who, being captured on his passage, had been committed to the tower a year before; the seeming rigour of the case exciting all his sensibility, the cause of the prisoner was taken up with such warmth, that he was liberated on bail shortly afterward, and soon exchanged for General Burgoyne. On this occasion (Dec. 3rd), an unusual degree of courtesy was shown him by the House; for not being in his place when the private business had concluded, and Mr. Fox saying he was sure his honourable friend had not departed from his intention, it was agreed to await his arrival rather than proceed to other business.

Several of the politicians of Ireland being in the habit of occasionally consulting him on the public measures adopted there, Lord Kenmare at this moment solicited his opinion on a bill then in progress for the alleged relief of the Roman Catholics, particularly in matters of education; to which he replied in a letter* dated 21st of February, 1782, soon after published without his consent in the Irish metropolis. This piece, occupying thirty octavo pages, which has all his accustomed force and perspicuity, was written amid a multiplicity of business, public and private, allowing him so little leisure that it was said to be dictated sometimes while eating a family dinner, sometimes while dressing, or even engaged in familiar conversation.

In public he was occupied, after the recess, in supporting some motions of Mr. Fox against Lord Sandwich and the Admiralty Board; on the employment of General Arnold as "a rebel to rebels;" on the Ordnance estimates; in an able reply to the new American Secretary (Mr. Welbore Ellis); on General Conway's motion, February 22nd, for terminating the war with the colonies, which reduced the Ministerial majority to one; and on Lord John Cavendish's motion of censure on Ministers, March 8th.

In animadverting on the difficulty of proposing new taxes (March 6th) he observed with his accustomed felicity of satire, that on looking over the blessed fruits of Lord North's administration, he found the country loaded with ten new taxes-beer, wine, soap, leather, horses, coaches, post-chaises, post-horses, stamps, and servants; recollecting that he had omitted sugar in this enumeration, he remarked, that since St. Christopher's was lost, and Barbadoes and Jamaica must probably follow, the omission was of small importance, as we should soon have no sugar

to tax.

"What fresh burdens can the Noble Lord add to this taxed Burke's Works, vol. vi., p. 269.

and taxing nation? We are taxed in riding and in walking, in staying at home and in going abroad, in being masters or in being servants, in drinking wine or in drinking beer; in short, in every way possible."*

"But viewing the account," he continued, " in a mercantile form, he must confess that for a hundred millions of money, we had purchased a full equivalent of disaster. If we were debtor by less in that sum of money, we were also creditor by less in a hundred thousand men, thirteen continental provinces, besides St. Vincent's, Grenada, Dominica, Tobago, St. Christopher's, Senegal, Pensacola, and Minorca, worth, at a moderate computation, four millions and a half annually."

When at length this long and arduous political struggle terminated (19th March, 1782), by the resignation of the Ministry, amid the triumphant shouts of Opposition, he afforded an example of moderation by checking the too clamorous joy of his friends, and reminding them how many difficulties they had to encounter; how necessary it was to guard against their own favourite desires, opinions, vanity, love of power, or emolument; how much the public expected from them; and how much they stood pledged to achieve; in which recommendation he was seconded by General Conway, another amiable and moderate man.--Recollecting the dictation which Mr. Fox often wished to assume in the deliberations of the party, it is difficult to believe that this lecture was not chiefly meant for him; from a misgiving in the mind of his coadjutor (so truly verified by the result) that his rashness, or impatience of superior lead or influence, would ultimately ruin the party.

A letter from Dr. Franklin, on the subject of the exchange of Mr. Laurens for General Burgoyne, drew from Mr. Burke the following characteristic letter, the morning of the first decisive expression of opinion by the House of Commons against the continuance of the American war:

"Dear Sir,

"Your most obliging letter demanded an early answer. It has not received the acknowledgment which was so justly due to it. But Providence has well supplied my deficiencies; and the delay of the answer has made it much more satisfactory than at the time of the receipt of your letter I dared to promise myself it could be.

"I congratulate you as the friend of America, I trust as not the enemy of England, I am sure as the friend of mankind, on the resolution of the House of Commons, carried by a majority of 19, at two o'clock this morning, in a very full House. It was the declaration of 234; I think it was the opinion of the whole. I

This idea was dilated into an amusing article which appeared some time ago in a celebrated periodical work devoted to criticism.

trust it will lead to a speedy peace between the two branches of the English nation, perhaps to a general peace; and that our happiness may be an introduction to that of the world at large. I most sincerely congratulate you on the event.

66

"I wish I could say that I have accomplished my commission. Difficulties remain. But, as Mr. Laurens is released from his confinement, and has recovered his health tolerably, he may wait, I hope, without a great deal of inconvenience, for the final adjustment of this troublesome business. He is an exceedingly agreeable and honourable man. I am much obliged to you for the honour of his acquaintance. He speaks of you as I do; and is perfectly sensible of your warm and friendly interposition in his favour. I have the honour to be, with the highest possible esteem and regard, dear Sir,

"Your most faithful and

"Obedient humble servant, "EDMUND BURKE.

་

'London, Charles Street, Feb. 28th, 1782."

It may be remarked, as another proof of Mr. Burke's kindness of disposition, that he had, as he said, until very recently, no personal acquaintance with General Burgoyne. Ön the second debate (December 17th) the General said

"Gratitude did not come up to the true magnitude of the feelings he experienced towards him (Mr. Burke), and he reverenced him the more because he knew the real source of his attachment to proceed principally from a generous concern for the unfortu nate, and a disinterested feeling for the oppressed and persecuted. He considered the friendship of the honourable gentleman as the greatest blessing, as well as the greatest honour, that had ever happened to him in his life."

About the same time, General Conway, on another subject, gave utterance to a nearly similar expression of sentiment, by saying, "that he had an esteem for the honourable gentleman (Mr. Burke) perhaps superior to any he felt for any other man whatever."

This character is believed to have been just, being distinguished afterwards in his native country for uncommon disinterestedness and contempt for the common scrambling after place and power, too common even in republican America. He resided after the peace chiefly on his estate; and on his death, in 1792, desired his body to be burned to ashes in his garden by nine favourite Negroes, which was ac. cordingly done,

CHAPTER VIII.

Appointed Paymaster General-Reasons for not being in the Cabinet-Letters to Lord Charlemont-Lord Shelburne-Coalition-Reports of the Select Committee on Bengal-Communication on the Arts to Barry-India Bill-Mr. Pitt-Mr. Burke elected Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow-Scotsmen-Character of his Epitaph on Sir G. Saville-Reception in the new Parliament-General Haviland and family-Jeu d'Esprit of Dean Marlay-Letter to Miss Shackleton --Anecdotes.

THUS had terminated the most hard and ably-fought party contest in our history, and with it virtually the war in which it originated; but it did not leave Mr. Burke, as it found him, undisputed leader of his party.

Mr. Fox, his political pupil and friend, who had been for some time treading closely on his heels in Parliament, and who had now advanced to an equality in the conduct of business there, and to superior popularity out of doors, finally took the lead. For this there were some obvious reasons. Inferior to his tutor, as a great and commanding orator, and what ought to be of more consequence to the country-as a wise and sound statesman, he frequently excelled most men in vigour of debate; but more especially possessed a peculiar tact beyond all his contemporaries and all his predecessors without exception, for being at the head of a political party. He enjoyed all the weight which birth and connexion (and these are essential objects among the Whigs of England) could give: his acquaintance with the great was necessarily extensive, and his friendships nearly as general; with the young, by community of pursuits and pleasures, with the old and staid, by community of information and talent. His fortune originally was considerable, had it not been squandered, his temper in general easy, his thirst for popularity excessive, his manners adapted to gain it, and his sacrifices to ensure it; his very faults and weaknesses were with many more matter of jest and favour than of censure. Some of his doctrines were more to the taste of the people, who placed confidence in his sincerity; and with scarcely a shilling he could call his own, they were pleased to think him in spirit the most independent.

In all these points he had the advantage over his coadjutor, who also suffered some loss of weight by his rejection at Bristol, by his disregard of the popular voice when he thought it ill-directed, by a more uncompromising temper, by being supposed a dependant of Lord Rockingham, and, among a certain class, by being a native of Ireland. There was unquestionably a jealousy through life of the merits and influence of Mr. Burke, even among many who advocated the same cause, which nothing but very uncommon powers and exertions enabled him to surmount, and of which he frequently complained. Under all these disadvantages, however, he had kept the effective lead in the Commons for ten years; and, had Lord