Memoir of the life and character of Edmund Burke, with specimens of his poetry and letters, and an estimate of his genius and talents, compared with those of his great contemporaries

Front matter

THE JAMES D. PHELAN CELTIC COLLECTION

I'

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Chapter I

Family and Birth of Mr. Burke. — The Nagles. — Castletown Roche Schoolmaster.— Ballitore Anecdotes. — Studies, and Poetical Exercises at College. — 'Literary Society in Dublin. — First Political Writings. — Entry at the Middle Temple 1

CHAPTER IL

First Impressions of London and England generall}'. — Contemplates an Attempt for the Logic Professorship of Glasgow. — Report about St. Omer. — Letter to his Father. — Idea of a perfect AVife. — Dr. Brocklesby's Compliment to ^Irs. Burke. — First avowed Publications of Mr. Burkdi 20

CHAFfER in.

Abridgment of English History. — Annual Register. — Acquaintance with Dr. Johnson. — Anecdotes of a Canon of Lichfield. — Mrs. Ann Pitt, Bishop Warburton, Hume, Lord Charlemont, Mr. Fitzherbert. — Connexion with Mr. Gerard Hamilton. — Letter to Mr. Flood. — Documents connected with Mr. Burke's Pension. — Anecdote of Mr. Burke's Humanity .......... 44

CHAPTER IV.

Appointed Private Secretary to the Marquis of Rockingham. — Anecdote of the Duke of Newcastle. — Mr. Burke's Account of the State of Parties and Politics. — Success in Parliament. — Dismission of the Ministry. — Short Account of a short Administration — Visit to Ireland. — Anecdotes. — His Memory. — Gregories. — Pamphlet in Reply to Mr. Grenville. — Junius. — Letters to Barrv .... 77

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER V.

Mr. Burke and Sir William Bagott. — Mr. Fox. — Pamphlet on the Discontents.— Parliamentary Business. — Visit to France. — Character of the House of Commons. — Mr. Burke's Argument against Taxing Irish Absentees, — Letter to General Lee. — Speech of the 19th of April, 1774. — Goldsmith. — Ill-humour of Barry. — Johnson and Burke.— Election for Bristol 129

CHAPTER VI.

Parliamentary Business.-fSpeech on American Conciliation. — Anecdotes of Drs. Franklin, Priestley, and Mr. Hartley. — Round Robin on Goldsmith's Epitaph. — Epitaph on Mr. Dowdeswell. — Use of a good Speech in Parliament.-;|-Letters to the Sheriffs and two Gentlemen of Bristol. — To Lord Charlemont. — Barry, Mr. Francis, Mr. Fox, Dr. Robertson.— j-Speeches on the Address, and Employment of the Indians. — Statue proposed in Dublin. — Admiral Keppel. — Letter to Sir William Jones 166

CHAPTER VIL

Economical Reform. — Letter on Parliamentary Reform. — Conduct during the Riots. — Intercedes for Mercy towards the Rioters.' — Elocution Walker. — Slave Trade. — Rejection at Bristol. — The Prince of Wales, Mr. Burke, and the Cm-ate.— Anecdotes of Mr. Burke's Humanity and Playful Humour. — Note to Sir W. Jones. — Opposed to Mr. Fox on the Repeal of the Marriage Act. — Mr. Sheridan. — Shearing the Wolf — Change of Ministry. — Letter to Dr. Franklin. . 203

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. Savile. — Reception in the New Parliament. — General Haviland and Family. — Jeu d'Esprit of Dean Marlay. — Letter to Miss Shackleton. — Anecdotes 231

CHAPTER IX.

Speech on the Nabob of Arcot's Debts. — Report of the Shipwreck of his Son. — Impeachment of Mr. Hastings. — Peroration on opening the Charges. — Visit to Ireland by Mr. Burke. — Conversations with a Gentleman in London. — Letters to Lord Charlemont. — Mr. Hardy's Account of him. — Preface to Bellendenus. — Epitaph on the Marquis of Rockingham ......... 268

CONTENTS. VU

CHAPTER X.

Anecdote of Burke at J\Ir. Crewe's. — Adventure with a Poor Artist. — Regency Question. — Letter to Mr. Pitt. — Letter to Mr. IVIontagu. — French Revolution. — Letters to M. Menonville — Letters from Edmund, the two Richards, and Mrs. Burke, to Mrs. Fn iich. — Ivupture with Mr. Sheridan. — Correspondence witli i\lr. JNIercer. — Parliamentary Business — Mr. G. Hamilton ..... 299

CHAPTER XL ,

Publication of Reflections on the Revolution in France. — Testimonies in its favour. — Reply of Burke to the Universities of Dublin and Oxford, and to jMr. Cumberland. — Thomas Paine. — Character of Henry IV. of France. — Letter to a Member of the National Assembly. Rupture with Mr. Fox. — Jury Bill of 179L — Parliamentary Business.— Anecdotes ........ 354

CHAPTER Xn.

Anwdote of Mr. Burke's unobtrusive Spirit. — Appeal from the New to the Old AVhifi^s. — French Emigrants. — Letter to Mr. (now Baron) Smith. — Writings on French Attairs, and on the Roman Catholic Claims — Sir Joshua Reynolds. — Parliamentary Business. — Letter on the Death of Mr. Shackleton. — War with France.— Letter of Mr. R. Burke, jun. to Mr. Smith 390

CHAPTER XHL

Letter to the Duke of Portland on the Conduct of the Minority. — Letter to Mr. Smith. — Character of Mr. Dundas. — Remarks on the Policy of the Allies. — Letters to General O'Hara, Mr. Murphy, and Mr. Dolphin. — Richard Burke the elder. — Report upon the Causes of the Duration of Mr. Hastings's Trial. — Death of Young Burke. — Dr. Lawrence's Letters ........ 430

CHAPTER XIV.

Correspondence with William Smith, Esq. (of Ireland) on the Roman Catholic Question — Second Letter to Sir Hercules Langrishe, on the same Subject. — Letter to William Elliott, Esq., on the Attack of the Duke of Norfolk in the House of Lords. — Letters to Mrs. Salisbury Haviland. — Letter to Lord Auckland, mth Remarks on his Pamphlet. — Letter to William Smith, Esq. — Thoughts and Details on Scarcity. — Anecdotes — Grant of a Pension. — Letter to a Noble Lord, in Reply to an Attack of the Duke of Bedford and the Earl of Lauderdale, in the House of Lords ...... 462

Vlii COI^TENTS.

CHAPTER XV.

Establisliment of the Emisi-ant School at Penn. — Letters to W. Hand to J. Gahagan, Esq. — Letters on a Regicide Peace. — His Prophetic spirit, as opposed to that of Mr. Pitt. — Report concerning him. — Letter to Mrs. Leadbeater. — Letter on the Affairs of Ireland. — His Illness and Death 499

CHAPTER XYI.

His Person. — Manners. — Habits, — Conversational Powers and Sallies. — Private Character. — Ardour of Temper and Reputed Irritability. — Contemporary Opinions formed of him .... 530

CHAPTER XVII.

His Eloquence. — His Writings. — His leading Principles as a Statesman. —Mr. Burke, Mr. Pitt, Mr. Fox 555

Index 589

DIRECTIONS TO BINDER.

Portrait to face Titlepage.

Facsimile Autogi'aph ....... 52

ADVERTISEMENT

THE SECOND EDITION.

In presenting a second and much enlarged edition of this work to the public, the writer cannot omit to express his acknowledgments for the favourable reception experienced by the first ; not only from the periodical censors of literature who assume to guide the public taste, but from the private testimonies of approbation afforded by persons of the very first consideration and talents in the country, whose opinions would seem to be confirmed by the sale of a large impression of the work in no very considerable space of time.

This encouragement naturally induced a corresponding diligence on his part, to endeavour, by every available means, to add to its interest and correctness ; and the inquiry and research resorted to with this view, though laborious, have not, it will be perceived, been in vain. The additional matter collected, almost the whole of which is original, adds a second volume to the work, and has necessarily caused a new arrangement in many parts for its introduction in the order of time, while

X ADVERTISEMENT TO THE

other passages are wholly re- written ; so that the work may be considered almost as new. This plan he conceived to be much more systematic and desirable than merely to give a supplemental volume of disjointed letters, anecdotesj and fragments thrown together without any bond of coherence or connexion.

For the information thus received the writer is indebted to a variety of sources, upon which he can place implicit reliance. Some of these are noticed in the progress of the volumes : while several persons to whom he is obliged think it obtrusive or unnecessary to give their names to the world upon circumstances of lighter moment in themselves, or which carry with them in substance a sufficient guarantee of authenticity. He should be ungrateful, however, not to avow in a particular manner his acknowledgments to the Hon. Sir William C. Smith, Bart., F. R. S., Second Baron of the Court of Exchequer in Ireland, for the documents with which he has been obliging enough to favour him, while he has to regret that one of them, the " Recollections," did not arrive in sufficient time to be inserted in chronological order, although the reader will meet with it at the conclusion of the work. He is likewise indebted for some contributions to the late Mr. James Gomme, F. S. A., who died shortly after they were communicated. But more especially his thanks are due to Thomas Haviland Burke, Esq. of Lincoln's Inn, the nephew and nearest surviving relative of Mr. Burke, and no less near to him in the virtues of the heart than in blood ; and who, from the satisfaction which the writer has derived from his personal acquaintance, he must consider to require only a little more time and opportunities to display no inconsiderable portion of the talents of his family. For

SECOND EDITION. XI

this public avowal of his sentiments, the author claims his indulgence ; as in making it he fears to offend that unpretending merit whose value rises in the esteem of every competent judge by the unobtrusive spirit with which it is accompanied. He has been kind enough to supply every document and information in his power for these volumes.

To advert to the various criticisms passed upon the work will not be thought necessary, further than to acknowledge the conciliatory and approving spirit in which they are generally couched ; while it is satisfactory to find that the plan, which the author originally chalked out to himself, of touching very briefly upon the parliamentary and other great public labours of Mr. Burke, which are already embodied in the history of the country as well as in other works of general interest and of course accessible to every description of reader, has been likewise approved.

Much of this favour to the author personally, is doubtless owing to the great popularity of his subject with the best informed and reflecting order of men. But it is not to be denied, that there is in this country a considerable number of politicians, who, from some original obliquity of judgment, or peculiarity of opinion upon certain constitutional points, persist in censuring the conduct of Mr. Burke for the part he took on the question of the French Revolution, although it might be supposed that observation and the progress of events, independent of all argument, had confirmed the accuracy of his views on that matter beyond further cavil or dispute.

It was not therefore with any great degree of surprise that he lately saw an attempt, under cover of a criticism

Xll ADVERTISEMENT TO THE

on his book, to maintain that Mr. Burke was so far mistaken in his assertion of there being no good likely to result from the Revolution, that France had at length acquired by it that freedom for which she had so long contended. This statement of the matter is quite a perversion of his argument. He never said, or thought of saying, that she was condemned to such a state of perpetual, irreversible slavery, that no accident could extricate her from it. What he really said and enforced was, that her Revolution, of which she was at first so proud, contained no one principle of which a wise or good man could approve ; that all its acts, means, and purposes were equally indefensible ; and that, of itself, it was not likely to lead to any system of national freedom. Experience has taught us that it did 7iot of itself introduce, or attempt to introduce, any such system.

As to the other clause in the critic's remark, about France having contended for the establishment of her constitutional freedom, it is so notoriously contrary to fact, that the wonder has been how perseveringly she struggled against it. She never, in fact, seriously set about seeking it ; neither did she, by the exertion of any wisdom, talent, or intelligence of her own, win it. The freedom, or at least the rudiments of freedom, which she now enjoys, was thrust upon her. A series of unexpected and fortuitous circumstances, which she not only did not forward, but on the contrary opposed by every means in her power, led to the production and establishment of the Charter. That important measure, therefore, so far from being her own work, was the work of the combined armies of Europe.

It may be doubted, indeed, whether she ever possessed any clear conception of the blessings of a free constitu-

SECOND EDITIOX. XIU

tion, or understood anything about how it was to be introduced or managed. For with the example of England before her, which might be considered a sufficient guard against committing gross mistakes, she plunged every succeeding year from her first efforts deeper and deeper into error ; floundering from simple financial embarrassments into general anarchy, from anarchy into a system of the bloodiest massacre and tyranny, from this into the crude and impracticable scheme of a directory, from a directory into a mawkish imitation of the consular government of ancient Rome, and from this product of folly into the next and natural stage, a grinding military despotism. In all this series of changes there was no approach to the establishment of consistent, steady, practical liberty. And at the beginning of 1814 she had neither in fact nor in appearance advanced one step nearer to obtaining it, than in 1714, or any other period of her history, nor was likely so to do, had not the wild ambition of her ruler provoked his own dovvnfal and led to the general change in her institutions. Consequently, France has no claim whatever to be considered her own liberator ; she struggled hard, on the contrary, to continue enslaved, and was at length only drubbed out of her chains. And a constitutional system, the most valuable present that could possibly be made to any nation, worth more than all the conquests she ever effected, had she been permitted to retain them all, has been the voluntary gift of her conquerors.

So little, therefore, did her revolution, with all its spoliations, proscriptions, terrors, massacres, and wars, for more than twenty-two years, effect for its nominal aim — that of giving freedom and security to her people.

XIV ADVERTISEMENT.

And so fully was the anticipation of Mr. Burke verified, that an event which inflicted and permitted so many evils, could scarcely, if left to itself, be productive of good.

The Addenda contain some particulars which were mislaid during the progress of the work ; and likewise a few others which came to hand too late to be inserted in their proper places.*

* In the present edition, the whole of the Addenda are inserted in their proper places.

Preface

Few things interest the curiosity of mankind more, or prove so instructive in themselves, as to trace the progress of a powerful mind, by the honourable exertion of its native energies, rising amid serious obstructions and difficulties from a very private condition to stations of public eminence and trust, and in its progress acquiring the power to rule, or to influence, the destiny of nations.

Such a person, as sprung not from the privileged few, but from among the mass of the people, we feel to be one of ourselves. Our sympathies go along with him in his career. The young imagine that it may possibly be their own case ; the old, with a glance of retrospective regret, may fancy, that with a little more of the favour of fortune it might have been theirs ; and at any rate we are anxious to ascertain the causes of his superiority, to treasure np his experience, to profit by what he experienced to be useful, to avoid what he found to be disadvantageous. And the lesson becomes doubly instructive to that large class of society who are born to be the architects of their own fortune, when it impresses the great moral truth, that natural endowments, however great, receive their highest polish and power, their only secure reward, from diligent study — from continued, unwearied application — a plain, homely faculty within the reach of all men ; one whose fruits, as they bear testimony at once to the industry of the possessor, and to the intrinsic value of the possession, are above all others likely to wear well. Of the great results of such endowments, fostered and directed by such cultivation, we have not a more distinguished example than Edmund Burke.

XVI PREFACE.

To an attentive reader of our political and literary history during the sixty years that are past, no name will more frequently attract his attention, whether we consider the large space he occupied in the public eye, the original genius he possessed, the diversified talents he displayed, the great events with which the whole of his public life was connected, and the alternate eulogy and abuse by which, particularly since the period of the French Revolution, his reputation has been assailed.

Two biographies of this remarkable man have been written ; one of them a quarto volume of slander, dictated by the most envenomed party spirit, and probably meant at the moment to answer some party purpose ; the other, more just to his deserts ; but both very deficient in facts, and especially so as to his earlier life, very little being stated, or indeed known of him, until his connexion with the Marquis of Rockingham, and subsequent entry into Parliament. Obvious as this deficiency in political biography was, accident alone suggested to the present writer the attempt to clear up part of this obscurity. Contemplating his qualities, both natural and acquired, and his career at large, as very extraordinary and successful, he drew up a character of him at some length in the autumn of 1819, which being thrown by for above two years without further notice, came then under the examination of a friend, who recommended that it should be enlarged and altered from the form it then bore : for that many parts as it stood would be obscure to the general reader, many be liable to mistake or misapplication, and some nearly unintelligible, if not grounded upon a memoir. This additional labour was undertaken certainly without regret. Some new materials were already in the writer's hands, and by application to various friends in England and Ireland, a variety of others, chiefly unknown to the world, and of undoubted authenticity, were procured ; and, as illustrative of the opinions, the criticisms, and the style of correspondence, as well of the friendly as of the more formal description of his principal, a few of his letters have been added, several of them little or not at all familiar to the public eve.

PREFACE. XVll

An extended biography, embracing a minute exposition of all his labours in Parliament, in Westminster Hall on the prosecution of Mr. Hastings, or in the press, together with details respecting American, India, French, or other important public affairs with which he was much concerned, was not deemed necessary. It may be said, indeed, that to write the life of a great statesman and orator, without giving the substance of his speeches in the great council of the nation, is scarcely to do him justice ; and, were they not to be found elsewhere, the remark would be just. But these make part of the history of the country. A few of the principal of them, given at length, are to be found in his works ; and the remainder may be seen, although in a very imperfect form indeed, as all such things must be when reporting was imperfect and publication wholly interdicted, in the four volumes collected and published (for Longman and Co.) by a different editor in 1816. And independent of this, the appalling form of two, three, or even more quartos, to which such a design would inevitably extend, was sufficient of itself to deter the writer from any such attempt^ bearing in mind the observation of the eminent subject of his sketch, that " a great book is a great evil." His aim was, therefore, not to make a great book, but a compact one ; to condense within a moderate compass all that was necessary to be known, and which many readers would decline to seek in the more ponderous forms just mentioned. In doing this, he thought it better simply to allude to the chief public exertions of Mr. Burke, accompanied by a few words of explanation or illustration, sometimes drawn from himself, rather than to aim at entering into their details.

Great as is the reputation of this eminent man, it stands, so far as party feelings are concerned, in rather a singular predicament. It is well known that he would not go aM lengths with any body of men, and constantly declined to fall in with any popular humour, of whose tendency he had the smallest doubt, although a contrary pl^n would have insured to him, as it did to others, a great increase of popularity ; that he had an utter abhorrence of any thing resembling the undue exercise of

h

XVlll PREFACE.

power or arrogant domination, no matter from what quarter it proceeded ; and that, by endeavouring to preserve a certain balance of powers in the state, as well as in different orders of the community, and in the different interests, religious, political, and commercial, of the kingdom, by stepping in to the assistance of the weak against the strong, which is beyond dispute the duty of honest patriotism and sound wisdom, he incurred censure from the more violent or domineering of every class. He was assailed by the zealots of power for opposing the coercion of America, and for prosecuting Mr. Hastings ; by the zealots of licentious freedom for opposing the French Revolution ; by zealots in religion for advocating the cause of the dissenters and Roman Catholics; and by zealots of various descriptions in affairs of less moment. Many other reasons might be adduced why he was not always at the head of that party whose cause he chiefly espoused ; the chief of which perhaps were, that he wanted that consequence from birth, fortune, and family connexion, which, along with great abilities, and some amiable private qualities, centred in Mr. Fox.

While, therefore, the two great divisions in politics of Whig and Tory, the former more especially, have deemed it a species of display of their allegiance to endeavour to depress his name for the purpose of exalting those of their particular leaders : and a more violent, though small body, known under various harsh and odious appellations unnecessary to be repeated here, have sworn a kind of eternal enmity to his name, for the overthrow which their doctrines experienced at his hands during the revolutionary fever in France, no special party remained, on whom devolved the obligation of upholding his fame. The old Whig connexion, indeed, of which he was so long the tongue and the soul, ought to have performed this duty, but they either wanted vigour, or had become merged in other parties. Depreciation and abuse from his political adversaries have in consequence been suffered to remain uncontradicted. If he did not write and speak himself into repute, nobody else perhaps can do it for him; nobody else certainly has attempted it. He has been left to the buoyancy of his own merits ; to

PREFACE. XIX

sink or swim in public opinion by his intrinsic powers. ' For what I have been," said he, *' I put myself upon my country ;" and among the educated and dispassionate part of it he has no reason to complain of the decision. Fie has worked his way into general esteem, not by the applauding pens of intoxicated followers, but by more eloquent though less noisy advocates ; by the slow but steady and sure evolution of national sentiment, by the living and flourishing evidences to his deserts, of a constitution preserved from demolition or inroad, an unshaken throne, an unpolluted altar, an unplundered nobility and gentry, and the continuance of those moral tics and habitudes which bind together and form the safeguard of the whole.

Misrepresentation, indeed, may answer its end for a time. And were it not indicative of something of a mak^volent feeling, it would be sometimes amusing to observe the ignorance or prejudice respecting the sentiments of Mr. Burke on a variety of public matters which prevails among many persons, who at a venture attribute to him any thing that happens to be unpopular at the moment — circumstances in which he had no participation or interest, and principles which he repeatedly opposed and disclaimed. In this spirit a reverend president of a political society at Liverpool not long ago stigmatised him as a deserter from the cause of parliamentary reform : and more than one of the orators of the Common Council of London, amid a few other flying reproaches just as much founded in truth, repeated the accusation. At two or three of the county meetings held some time back, he was spoken of as a sinecure placeman, and an enemy to liberty. At one of the largest book establishments in London, on inquiring for a volume in which it happened to be said there was something concerning him, " a satire, sir, I suppose," was the reply ; as if satire was the legitimate coin with which his public labours deserved to be repaid.* In a private company of that consideration

* A similar circumstance occurred again to the writer very lately at one (the very first perhaps) of these establishments. A volume containing some remarks upon him being handed down, — '' He was an extraordinary man/' observed the bibliopoUyt, " but like all the rest of them, ready to change his

XX PREFACE.

in society in which the writer least expected to hear observations thrown out of an illiberal or wholly untrue description, the motives of Mr. Burke in the impeachment of Mr. Hastings were sharply arraigned by some members of what is called the Indian intej^est, though on being pushed for facts, none of the party could assign any thing like an improper motive. In another company, less select, but of some consideration, he was admitted to be a most surprising man, but unhappily opposed to the reformation of all abuses in government. In a third, he was an ingenious and able writer, but too flowery in his style. In a fourth, his political conduct was said to be regulated by regard merely to his own interests. In a fifth, probably from the want of some better handle for censure, it was gravely urged as a drawback upon his fame, that he originally possessed no private property ; nay, that he was humble enough to receive the profits of his literary labours, and that at length he accepted of a pension ; — so that, by this ingenious and discriminating eifort of logic, the original sin charged against him of want of fortune was not permitted to be remedied, either by the fair exertion of those talents with which Providence had endowed him, or by the public gratitude of his country. All these circumstances came lately under the eye and ear of the writer. They are samples of what is heard every day in the ill-read, or ill-considered, remarks of drawing-rooms and tea-tables; and are only worthy of notice as coming occasionally from persons who assume a lead in conversation, and who would have felt not a little indignant at being told, what was nevertheless fact, that they were disseminating untruths or nonsense.

Another order of persons, of more influence and information, chiefly of the class of public writers, who have in view to exalt another great political name,! think it opinions when it suited his purpose." — These people keep books, but do not read them. — Yet the estimate usnally formed of the characters of all statesmen (some of the first living names came in, on this occasion, for a share of the censure) by persons who pass among their acquaintance as being sensible and well informed, is commonly of this description.

^ t Mr. Fox.

PREFACE. XXI

necessary for the accomplishment of their purpose to lower, though indirectly and circuitously, the reputation of Mr. Burke.

From these persons we hear of him frequently as a man of great genius, of many acquirements, of brilliant fancy, and amusing talents ; carefully keeping out of view, as if they were wholly unknown, those more useful and more profound qualities of mind which constitute his chief claims to distinction. Sometimes, again, he is what they are pleased to term a philosophical politician, meaning by this to imply something different from a practical statesman ; sometimes he is even admitted to be the greatest writer of the age, while scarcely an allusion is made to that parliamentary eloquence which made his name as an orator more celebrated on the continent of Europe, while he continued in the House of Commons, than those of either of his great rivals, and which enabled him to take the lead for so many years in that assembly, besides drawing the then (1774) very unusual honour of an invitation to represent, free of expense, one of the chief cities of the kingdom. At other times, hints are dropped, of how much better his genius would have been exerted in many other ways than in politics. This opinion is at best but mere assumption and trifling. For though doubtless calculated to excel in any thing to which he vigorously applied his mind, we have no right to speculate on what he might have been, but what he really was. And his whole career proves, that, added to an early bias towards the consideration of public affairs, there is perhaps little doubt but that more of the strength of his mind was put forth by the contentions inseparable from politics than could have been effected by any other species of discussion. But independent of this, if he has left behind in the track of life which he ultimately adopted, more materials for fame than either of his contemporaries or predecessors, namely, the finest orations in the English language, the ablest political disquisitions, the introduction or support of a series of important constitutional measures for nearly thirty years together, and a reputation perhaps above any other for practical wisdom, not resting on the mere opinion of the moment, but