In his domestic relations he was worthy, and more than worthy he could not be, of the eminent felicity which for many years he enjoyed; a husband of exemplary tenderness and fidelity; a father fond to excess; the most affectionate of brothers; the kindest master; and, on his part, he has often been heard to declare, that in the most anxious moments of his public life, every care vanished when he entered his own roof. One, who long and intimately knew him, to divert his own sorrow, has paid this very inadequate tribute to his memory. Nothing which relates to such a man can be uninteresting or uninstructive to the public, to whom he truly belonged. Few indeed whom the divine goodness has largely gifted, are capable of profiting by the imitation of his genius and learning; but all mankind may grow better by the study of his virtues."

Much of this praise came from those who knew him not merely in the bustle of political life, but in moments when the statesman was sunk in the social acquaintance. This is the more valuable species of testimony, as it sometimes happens that a nearer view of public men diminishes much of that admiration or wonder we feel at a distance. With him familiarity appears to have increased it. His more private friends, who happened to be little or not at all connected with public affairs, and who had the best possible opportunities of probing and exploring the man, loved him the best and prized him the most. The same feeling existed among his relatives. No man, it has been said, is a hero to his valet-de-chambre; and from the same feeling of familiarity few men perhaps however great in the estimation of the world, carry the same impressions of greatness into the bosoms of their own families. Yet even there, where most unveiled and unreserved, he had the fortune to secure both profound attachment and respect; and the following anec dote proves that he contrived to belie the proverb just quoted. When some one was congratulating his old servant Webster on the honour of serving so good a master and so great a man-"Yes, Sir," said the faithful attendant," he is a great man; he knows and does every thing but what is mean, or little." Mr. Windham used to say that this was one of the finest panegyrics upon him which could be uttered.

Richard his brother, and William Burke, his companions from youth, the partakers of his fortunes, the participators

in many of his studies, who knew if any men could know, the value of his mind and the labours bestowed upon its culture, looked up to him with a feeling of veneration. Sentiments of this kind frequently appear in the letters of both. At an early period of his public life Richard, writing to Shackleton as we have seen in a previous page (105) passes a high eulogium on him on public grounds. William Burke, writing about the same time, speaks the same language. Though no relation of Edmund, this gentleman was so much attached to him from boyhood, and so proud of the connexion, that, in the language of a friend of the family," he would have knocked. any man down who had dared to dispute the relationship." The respectful admiration of his son equalled that of his brother and friend. During the last visit to Ireland in 1786, when Mr. Shackleton, after listening attentively to some ingenious and profound observations of the father, turned aside soon afterwards with the son and remarked in conversation, "He is the greatest man of the age:" "He is," replied the son, with filial enthusiasm, and a very near approximation to the truth," the greatest man of any age." This estimate is not therefore, as many of the preceding testimonies imply, merely that of filial admiration. A greater and more experienced name indulges in nearly the same language, repeating what most writers say when touching upon the topics which he had occasion to handle. Sir James Mackintosh writes-"Burke was one of the first thinkers as well as one of the greatest orators of his time. He is without parallel in any age, excepting perhaps Lord Bacon and Cicero ; and his works contain an ampler store of political and moral wisdom than can be found in any other writer whatever."

"No one can doubt," says Lord Brougham, "that enlightened men in all ages will hang over the works of Mr. Burke. He was a writer of the first class, and excelled in almost every species of prose composition. The extraordinary depth of his detached views, the penetrating sagacity which he occasionally applies to men and their motives, and the curious felicity of expression with which he unfolds principles and traces resemblances and relations, are separately the gift of few, and in their union probably without any example." Nothing perhaps more strongly exhibits the homage paid to great talents united to moral qualities than the influence

he acquired over the most eminent men with whom politi cal connexion brought him into contact. The preceding pages furnish ample evidence of this power; such for instance as the Marquis of Rockingham, a man of sound talents unquestionably, the Duke of Richmond, Admiral Keppel, Sir George Savile, Mr. Dowdeswell, and all the ablest of that party; the Duke of Portland, Mr. Fox, Mr. Windham, all his private friends without exception; the most distinguished of the Whig party, several of the coalition Ministry;-in some degree over Mr. Pitt and his colleagues in 1792, at least as much as the habitual pride, and jealousy of all political talents entertained by the minister would permit; numberless others who might be mentioned; and on nearly all the great questions he embraced, eventually over the whole nation. If it require a pretty strong understanding to gain leading influence over even the ignorant and the weak, what must that be which subjects to its dominion the enlightened and the powerful, and in talents not merely the great but the vast?

CHAPTER XVII.

His eloquence-His writings-His leading principles as a Statesman-Mr. Burke, Mr. Pitt, and Mr. Fox.

CRITICS of the classical ages accustomed frequently to witness the powerful influences of good public speaking in popular assemblies, have endeavoured to impress upon us a high idea of the requisites of a great orator. His moral character should be pure, his knowledge universal, with a genius fitted to animate and adorn that knowledge; his language flowing, his delivery impressive, his powers of reasoning and imagination strong, added to such perfect possession of himself as to be in readiness to combine these qualities, or to draw upon each separately according to the exigencies of the moment. These constitute a rare combination such as our imperfect humanity can scarcely exhibit; but beyond all question no one in the history of English oratory approaches > near to this character as Burke. With some truth it has en said that his powers if shared out, would have made

half a dozen of good orators. And we must regard him at least as a remarkable instance of one who approached the ancient standard of perfection. Others of the great political names of our country possess only two or three of the qualities enumerated. Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox for instance, equalled him in reasoning, in judgment on common affairs, and in fluency. Mr. Sheridan in coolness, promptitude, and wit. Lord Chatham had the superiority of a bold and overpowering delivery. Lord Bolingbroke, also perhaps in some degree, had the same advantage though we have little now on which to found an opinion. And Charles Townshend in addition to many popular requisites, possessed a peculiar parliamentary skill in seizing the favourable moment to push a subject, in the adaptation of his powers to the point at issue and to the temper of the House at the moment whatever temper that might be; but none possessed the combination peculiar to Burke. Neither had any of these eminent persons pretensions to his originality of thought, force of language, felicitous phraseology, or that inexhaustible fertility upon every topic which constitutes the soul of eloquence, and which when his opponents had little else to find fault with they urged against him as a defect. He would seem therefore to have been cut out for the character in which he figured, partly by large natural gifts, and partly by having grounded and reared himself upon the model which the Augustan age of literature recommends. And this must have been done at an early period of life; led to it probably not so much by sanguine hope of ever becoming the character which he admired, as by the expected duties of the profession he at first contemplated, or by that impulse which, without knowing precisely whither it tends, so often impels and guides us in th pursuits of life.

A distinction may be made and perhaps hold good, between a great orator and a debater. It has been said, that in the latter respect Mr. Fox acquired the superiority over all men. No speaker certainly was ever heard with more consideration by those opposed to him, or perhaps with so much partiality by those whom he led in the House of Commons, arising as well from unquestioned talents as strong attachment to his person, which few other political leaders have had the good fortune to secure, or to secure in the same degree. It will nevertheless be difficult to point out where Burke's

presumed inferiority lay. In information, in wisdom upon all great occasions, and in variety of talents to secure them a favourable reception from his hearers, he had no equal; in readiness and vigour no superior; and he was accused of being frequent and fertile to a fault.

After all it may be doubted whether this great reputed dexterity in debate, be any just criterion of the highest order of intellect, or whether the style which commonly accompanies it is of the highest style of oratory-that style which is not merely effective in the British Senate, but commands the admiration of all men of all countries as the perfection of the art. Judged by this standard Mr. Fox comes much short of Burke. A good debater, although a character almost wholly English, there being scarcely any such as we understand it among the ancients, and little resembling him in the rest of Europe at the present day, is more of a mechanic perhaps than he is willing to acknowledge. His range is commonly narrowed, his aim bounded by local or temporary circumstances, which though calculated to meet some minor interest or emergency, often become obstacles to wide expansion of mind. He may be said to move within the narrowest circle, to work in a species of political treadmill. His art has been attained as in the cases of Fox, Pitt and others—and it is but fair to calculate may be again acquired at an age when other and much higher faculties remain still unfolded. A good debater therefore may be in great measure made. The power of a great and commanding orator in the highest acceptation of the term must, like that of the poet, be chiefly born with him.*

The oratorical style of Burke appears not only of a high order, but it possesses the first characteristic of geniusoriginality. We have nothing that is very similar, and little

Since the first publication of this work the opinion of a great genius seems to corroborate that of the present writer.

Lord Byron has observed, that no parliamentary speaker of our own day gave him the idea of a great orator. Grattan, he said, was near to it. Fox he only regarded as a debater, and between such a character and a great orator there is no more resemblance, he adds, than between an improvisatore, or a versifier, and a great poet. Lord Chatham and Burke were, in his opinion, the only English orators who approached perfection.If the contest for superiority lies between these two great men, it will be no difficult matter to decide to whom the preference will be given.