Selections from the Speeches and Writings | Page 4

century has assigned to
Edmund Burke a lofty pre-eminence in the aristocracy of mind, and we
may justly assume succeeding ages will confirm the judgment which
the Past has thus pronounced. His biographical history is so popularly
known, that it is almost superfluous to record it in this brief
introduction. It may, however, be summed up in a few sentences. He
was born at Dublin in 1730. His father was an attorney in extensive
practice, and his mother's maiden name was Nogle, whose family was
respectable, and resided near Castletown, Roche, where Burke himself
received five years of boyish education under the guidance of a rustic
schoolmaster. He was entered at Trinity College, Dublin, in 1746, but
only remained there until 1749. In 1753 he became a member of the
Middle Temple, and maintained himself chiefly by literary toil. Bristol
did itself the honour to elect him for her representative in 1774, and
after years of splendid usefulness and mental triumph, as an orator,
statesman, and patriot, he retired to his favourite retreat, Beaconsfield,
in Buckinghamshire, where he died on July 9th, 1797. He was buried
here; and the pilgrim who visits the grave of this illustrious man, when
he gazes on the simple tomb which marks the earthly resting?place of
himself, brother, son, and widow, may feelingly recall his own pathetic
wish uttered some forty years before, in London:--"I would rather sleep
in the southern corner of a little country churchyard, than in the tomb of
the Capulets. I should like, however, that my dust should mingle with
kindred dust. The good old expression, 'family burying?ground,' has
something pleasing in it, at least to me." Alluding to his approaching

dissolution, he thus speaks, in a letter addressed to a relative of his
earliest schoolmaster:--"I have been at Bath these four months for no
purpose, and am therefore to be removed to my own house at
Beaconsfield to-morrow, to be nearer a habitation more permanent,
humbly and fearfully hoping that my better part may find a better
mansion." It is a source of deep thankfulness for those who reverence
the genius and eloquence of this great man, to state, that Burke's
religion was that of the Cross, and to find him speaking of the
"Intercession" of our Redeeming Lord, as "what he had long sought
with unfeigned anxiety, and to which he looked with trembling hope."
The commencing paragraph in his Will also authenticates the genuine
character of his personal Christianity. "According to the ancient, good,
and laudable custom, of which my heart and understanding recognise
the propriety, I BEQUEATH MY SOUL TO GOD, HOPING FOR HIS
MERCY ONLY THROUGH THE MERITS OF OUR LORD AND
SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST. My body I desire to be buried in the
church of Beaconsfield, near to the bodies of my dearest brother, and
my dearest son, in all humility praying, that as we have lived in perfect
unity together, we may together have part in the resurrection of the
just." (In the "Epistolary Correspondence of the Right Hon. Edmund
Burke and Dr. French Laurence" (Rivingtons, London, 1827), are
several touching allusions to that master?grief which threw a mournful
shadow over the closing period of Burke's life. In one letter the anxious
father says, "The fever continues much as it was. He sleeps in a very
uneasy way from time to time?-but his strength decays visibly, and his
voice is, in a manner, gone. But God is all?sufficient?-and surely His
goodness and his mother's prayers may do much" (page 30). Again, in
another communication addressed to his revered correspondent, we find
a beautiful allusion to his departed son, which involves his belief in that
most soothing doctrine of the Church,--a recognition of souls in the
kingdom of the Beatified. "Here I am in the last retreat of hunted
infirmity; I am indeed 'aux abois.' But, as through the whole of a
various and long life I have been more indebted than thankful to
Providence, so I am now singularly so, in being dismissed, as hitherto I
appear to be, so gently from life, AND SENT TO FOLLOW THOSE
WHO IN COURSE OUGHT TO HAVE FOLLOWED ME, WHOM, I
TRUST, I SHALL YET, IN SOME INCONCEIVABLE MANNER,

SEE AND KNOW; AND BY WHOM I SHALL BE SEEN AND
KNOWN" (pages 53, 54).
In reference to the intellectual grandeur, the eloquent genius, and
prophetic wisdom of Burke, which have caused his writings to become
oracles for future statesmen to consult, it is quite unnecessary for
contemporary criticism to speak. By the concurring judgment, both of
political friends and foes, as well as by the highest arbiters of taste
throughout the civilized world, Burke has been pronounced, not only
"primus inter pares," but "facile omnium princeps." At the termination
of these introductory remarks, the reader will be presented with