BURKE, EDMUND, a writer distinguished in morals, criticism, and politics, was born in Dublin on the 1st of January 1730. Ilis father was a reputable attorney, and not a Catholic, as has been sometimes asserted. lie was educated in the academy of Shackleton by a quaker at Ballystore, near Carlow, to whom for 40 years, during his lisits to Ireland, the grateful scholor used regularly to pay his respects. in 1746, he was entered at Dublin College, where he pursued a wide and diversified course of studies, chiefly in moral science, and took a bachelor's degree. The story of his studying at St Omer's is de nied, apparently on good grounds, by his biographers. We bear, however, nothing farther about him, till he made an unsuccessful attempt for the vacant professor ship of logic at the college of Glasgow. Burke, it is said, was passing the old college court gate of that place, when a label affixed to it struck his eye, which had been pasted up as a mere matter of form, inviting all candi dates for the professorship to compete, although it was known that a successor was already fixed upon. Whether Burke made a public competition by the old syllogistic mode, or was at all a competitor in form, we know not. In 1753, he came to London, and fixed as a student of law ; and for sonic time, there is every reason to believe, :amp)! ted himself by writing for newspapers and maga zines. Yet, though hitherto comparatively obscure, he found his way to polite socit ty, distinguished himself is Lcn yer he was known by the (barns of his conv•rsa tion, and was so far a man of pleasure, as to be supposed to he on inthnate terms of iris ndship with "Airs Wolfing ton, the actress, whose elegance of manners was to him like that of Aspasia to Socrates, and contributed a polish to the solid materials of his mind. A decline of his health made him the guest of his friend Dr Nugent, which eventually occasioned his marriage with the daughter of that able physician.
His first avowed work appeared in 1756,.4 Vindication of .Vatural .39wty, or a view r,f the s and cede arui ing to manklndfrwu •yrry sprcle& of tzrtrficzal noru tq ; a letter to Lord • • •, by a late noble writ r. The noble writer meant to be supposi d wag \\lit tiler Ale Burke's real intention in this Ivor!: sst.s to represent the worst rrors of homan institutions, or iro nically to sla ss the sseakness of 1fodiogbroke's :tegument•. against tcli •i(n foubded on its alms* s, by pointing the same inconcInsise arguments against cis.il we know not ; but his work attracted, at its first appf ar [ince, very little interest. The reception 'A his Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful, in 1757, was much molt flat tering; and has since preset.% ed his trann among the highest writ( rs on tile philosophy of ta,te ; although toe errors of much of his system have been sine( sufficiehtly refuted. The fame of this work is said to have pro( teed hire the acquaintance of aid Johnsen. Such, however, was the force of Bu•ke's mind in conversation, and such was his promptitude in bringing it to bear en all points, that we doubt if his introduction to the highest literary circle of his tithe was owing to his writ ings. A man who could not be conversed ith, (as John son said,) while you took shelter with him front a shower under a gateway, without perceiving that he was au ex traordinary genius, such a man required no treatist s to introduce him in any circle. In 1758, he proposed to
Dodsley the bookseller, the plan of the Annual Register. He wrote much of the historical part cf that work : the general air of which has a candour and a diffuse dignity resembling the unpremeditated effusions of such a mind as his. His political career may be said to have com menced in 1761, when, going over as confidential frit lid to Ali. (Single Speech) Hamilton, secretary to the Lord Lieutenant Lord Halifax, he is supposed to have ren dered some service to the ministry, for which they re warded him with a pension of 30o/. a year on the Irish establishment. Sc-on after his return to London, he was introduced to Lord Rockingham, who made him his pri vate secretary, gave him a loan, or rather a present, of several thousand pounds, and, by his personal kindness and congenial patriotism, gave a colour to the politics of Burke, which they retained with kw sal iatiobs during life. He was, indeed, at different pet iods, both a demo crat and an aristocrat ; but he combinc el, during t great er part of his life, a certain visible connection between thine apparently incongruous qualities of t.!ose distinctions. Ile loved the liberty of England, but he wished the mov ing power of the government to cehtr• in the great fami lies. These were the politics of Rockingham. Burke stood up for America against the claim of taxation ; but he wished to was e the question of abstract right.—This was the practice of Rockingham. By Lord Rocking ham's bounty, he was enabled to purchase his scat at Beaconsfield ; by the interest of his patron he also got into parliament. His first speech excited uncommon sensation ; more admiration, perhaps, of his eloquence than of his logic ; but when superior powers of imagina tion arc displayed, the mass of mankind look sanguinely for the further evolution of practical and solid talents. Burke now partakes the blame of what are called the in decisive measures of the Rockingham cabinet with re spect to America ; but he shared at the time in time popu larity of the repeals of the cyder and warrant acts. The administration of Lord Rockingham was short, and Burke concluded his official labours by a forcible and (consider. ing the style of his eloquence) a simple work, entitled ? short account of a Lie short Atter which he took his among die determined opposers of ministry, and the regular censurers of their proceed ings. In his next political work, his Thought(' on the Causes of the present Discontents, while he asserts the most popular principles of the constitution, he reverts to a practical remedy, which attests his leaning to aristo cracy ; for the sum of his arguments is, that the govern ment ought to be placed in the hands of the great Whig families. who had been favourers of the Revolution, and of its consequent measures. The same gist of argument is liberally strewn over the speeches of Chatham himself, although the popularity of that nobleman prevented the nation from interpreting the meaning of his free advice to his sovereign, when he told him that lie could not hope to act by anu minister without the aid of the powerful families of England: There might be practical truth, but there was little democracy in this sentiment.