IX. 1792. CHAP. in learning was not remarkable; another peculiarity which is generally, though not always, observed in those destined to ultimate greatness, and which arises from their attention being early fixed on things, not words-on the latter of which a schoolboy's, on the former a man's celebrity depends. At the age of thirteen, he was removed to the academy at Ballitore, in the county of Kildare, and there his great powers soon developed themselves. They consisted at first, not so much in brilliancy, as in steadiness of application, facility of comprehension, and strength of memory. The same characteristics distinguished his early writings and speeches, and it was not till late in life that his imagination shone forth with such lustre ; a peculiarity common to him with Milton, Shakspeare, Bacon, and many other of the greatest poets and orators who ever existed. It is easily explained, if we reflect that a quick and fervent mind readily fans a flame from Prior's Life a few perishable materials; but a great one requires mighty and durable elements to warm it into a glow. "Materiâ alitur, motibus excitatur, et urendo lucescit."1 1 Tacitus. of Burke, i. 2, 14. 39. His first entrance into life. His studies early in life, like those of Gibbon and Johnson, were more varied than systematic, multifarious than profound; a system practised in Scotland and Ireland more than in England, but which, looking to the results in these three great men, would seem not to be the worst way of enlarging and strengthening the human mind. He went through college respectably, but with no extraordinary distinction reading incessantly, but often poems and novels rather than the works of the Academic curriculum, dwelling much on the sublime passages of Shakspeare, Milton, and Young, and not unfrequently essaying his own powers in their career. He was destined for the bar, to which he was entered in 1747, in London; but before this period, the bent of his genius to historical and political subjects was very apparent, having "It is nourished by materials, excited by occasions, and shines by burning." -TACITUS. IX. 1792. been signally evinced in the debates of the Historical CHAP. Society in Dublin College, of which he was a zealous member. After arriving in London, in 1750, to prosecute his legal studies, he found them wholly distasteful to his diffusive genius, and, possessing an adequate independence, quitted the law for the more attractive paths of literature. He soon after published his Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful; and in 1758, began to write the historical part of the Annual Register, which he superintended for many years. Little of the fire of the orator, however, or the depth of the philosopher, is to be found in these compositions; he was then only collecting the materials on which the immortal superstructure of his fame was afterwards to be reared. In 1765, he was, from the reputation he had acquired as a writer, appointed private secretary to Lord Rockingham ; and soon after entered parliament as member for Wendover, Life of in Buckinghamshire. Thenceforward his biography forms 24, 139. part of the history of England.1 1 Prior's Burke, i. the French Mr Burke had long combated in the ranks of Opposi- 40. tion with Mr Fox, and the closest private friendship had His views on cemented their political alliance; but, on the breaking Revolution. out of the French Revolution, they embraced different views. Mr Fox warmly applauded its principles, and declared in the House of Commons, that "the new constitution of France was the most stupendous and glorious edifice of liberty which had been erected on the foundation of human integrity in any age or country." Mr Burke, on the other hand, gifted with greater political sagacity and foresight, early exerted his talents to oppose the levelling principles which that convulsion had introduced; and his work on the French Revolution produced, perhaps, a greater impression on the public mind than any which has yet appeared in the world. It abounds in eloquent passages, profound wisdom, and discriminating talent; but, vast as its influence, and unbounded as its reputation were when it first appeared, its value was VOL. II. 2 A IX. 1792. CHAP. not fully understood till the progress of events had demonstrated the justice of its principles. Their division on this vital question for ever alienated these illustrious men from each other, and drew tears from both in the House of Commons; an emblem of the effects of this heart-stirring event upon the charities of private life, of 1 Ann. Reg. the variance which it introduced into the bosom of famixxxiii. 114, lies, and between friendships which "had stood the strain of a whole lifetime."1 136. 41. tween Mr theCanadian April 15, 1791. April 8. The occasion on which this momentous separation Division be- took place, was in the debate on the new constitution Burke and proposed for the provinces of Canada, in 1791; a reMr Fox on markable coincidence, when the subsequent events in constitution. that colony are taken into consideration, and the vehement strife between the monarchical and republican principles, of which it afterwards became the theatre. So strongly did both these illustrious statesmen, but especially Mr Burke, feel on the all-engrossing topic of the French Revolution, that they mutually introduced it into almost all the debates which took place in the House of Commons at that period; and it was especially the subject of vehement and impassioned declamation, on occasion of the debate on Mr Baker's motion relative to a war with Russia, and the first introduction of the Canada Government Bill,-subjects which not unnaturally led to consideration of the supposed tendency of the French Revolution with regard to the external relations and internal happiness of nations. From that time a rupture between these two great men was distinctly foreseen, both by their friends and the public. It was, in truth, unavoidable ; and is to be regarded as the index to the schism which must ensue in every free community, on occasion of strong democratic excitement, between those who adhere to the landmarks of the past, and those who are willing to adventure on the dark sea of innovation. Still, however, the external appearances of friendship were maintained between them; they visited, though not so fre IX. 1792. quently as in former years; and, on the 6th of May, CHAP. when the Canada Bill was to be debated in committee, they not only walked to the House together, but Mr Fox treated Mr Burke, in a previous conversation, with confidence, and mentioned to him a political circumstance of some delicacy. But the feelings of the latter were too ardent to be restrained; the future, big with disaster, revealed itself so clearly to his view, that it obliterated the past, and overshadowed the present; and in the debate which followed on that night, these two illustrious men were for ever severed, and the popular party in Great Britain permanently rent in twain. The debates on this subject possess the highest interest. They not only embrace the most thrilling event in the biography 1 Parl. Deb. of both, but they constitute an era in the history of and Burke's Speeches, iv. Europe during its most eventful period. The destinies 2, 3. of civilisation hung upon their words.1 In xxix. 362; 42. Argument of Mr Fox volution. On the part of Mr Fox, it was urged on this occasion, and in the previous debate on the Russian armament "Without entering into the question whether hereditary for the honours are in themselves an advantage or an evil, the French Repoint which the House has now to consider is, Whether there is any thing in them so peculiarly advantageous as to incline us to introduce them into a country where they are unknown, and by such means distinguish Canada from all the other colonies of the New World? countries where they make a part of the constitution, it is not wise to destroy them; but it is a very different matter to give them birth and life in a country where they at present do not exist. It is impossible to account for such an attempt, except on the principle that, as Canada was formerly a French colony, there might be an opportunity of reviving those titles of honour, the extinction of which some gentlemen so much deplore, and of reviving in the West that spirit of chivalry which has fallen into disgrace in a neighbouring country. Are those red and blue ribbons, which have lost their lustre in IX. 1792. CHAP. the Old World, again to shine forth in the New? What can be so absurd as to introduce hereditary honours in the New World, where they are so much the object of undisguised aversion? The proposed upper chamber would be equally objectionable if the council were hereditary; for such an assembly would be nothing more than a tool in the hands of the royal authority. Not less so is the clause for making provision for the Protestant clergy, by enacting that, in all grants by the crown of unappropriated lands, one-seventh should be given to them. What can be so monstrous as such a fundamental rule in a country where the great bulk of the people are Catholics? Even if they were all Protestants, it would still be unsuitable; how much more so, therefore, when the whole of the Protestants, such as they are, are much subdivided, and the large proportion of them are Presbyterians, dissenters, or subordinate sects. "Feeble as my powers are in comparison with my honourable friend's, whom I must call my master-for every thing that I know in politics I owe to him-I should yet ever be ready to maintain my principles even against his superior eloquence. I will maintain that the rights of man, which he states as chimerical and visionary, are in fact the basis and foundation of every rational constitution, and even of the British constitution itself, as the statute-book abundantly proves; for what is the original compact between king and people there recognised, but the recognition of the inherent rights of the people as men, which no prescription can supersede, and no accident remove or obliterate ? If these principles are dangerous to the constitution, they are the principles of my right honourable friend, from whom I learned them. During the American war we have together rejoiced at the success of a Washington, and mourned almost in tears for the fate of a Montgomery. From him I have learned that the revolt of a whole people |