EDMUND BURKE was born in Dublin, probably on January 12, 1729, though there is some dispute about this date. He passed his early school days in a town not far from his birthplace, under the tutorship of Abraham Shackleton, a Quaker schoolmaster of rare ability and moral worth, who had considerable influence in molding Burke's character. One characteristic which clung to him through life Burke manifested at an early age- when others were at play he was always at work. He entered Trinity College, Dublin, in 1743, and graduated in 1748. Much of his time at this period he spent in the libraries, gathering a store of useful information on many subjects which, later in life, proved to him a mine of intellectual wealth. Burke's father was a solicitor, and Edmund prepared to follow in his footsteps; but, at the critical moment, his distaste for the law as a profession led him to abandon this career. He was, in fact, strongly attracted to literature, and he determined to adopt it as his calling. His father, indignant at this course, and angered at the overthrow of his most cherished plans, withdrew his allowance, and left his son to shift for himself in that most precarious of all callings. This was in 1755, and for the next year or so we hear little of Burke's doings. In 1756 he married Miss M'750287 Nugent, the daughter of his physician, and in his married life he must have been peculiarly fortunate, for he tells us himself that every care vanished the moment he entered under his own roof. Just about this time he published anonymously his first book, "A Vindication of Natural Society," a clever imitation of one of Lord Bolingbroke's works against Christianity. Burke's design was to prove the absurdity of Bolingbroke's arguments by showing that they applied with equal force to civilization, and that, if carried out to their logical conclusion, we must deduce that society is an evil, and the savage state the only one in which virtue and happiness are possible. But so closely was the satire veiled, and so perfect was the imitation of Bolingbroke's style, that many of the best critics of the day firmly believed that the "Vindication" came from the pen of Bolingbroke himself, and that the arguments and conclusions were written in all seriousness. When we reflect that Bolingbroke at this time stood at the very summit of fame as a master of style, we perceive that Burke had attained no mean insight into the arts of literary composition. A few months later he published an essay on "The Sublime and the Beautiful," which was received with much applause. Perhaps the greatest good that resulted to Burke from these writings was the acquaintance with his brother authors to which they led, and the admission they gave him to the literary clubs of the day. In 1759 Burke was engaged in collecting details of current events for a periodical called "The Annual Register." In this connection he became acquainted with men in public life, and among others with William Gerard Hamilton. In 1761 Hamilton went to Ireland as secretary to Lord Halifax, and Burke accompanied him. In 1763 Hamilton, who found Burke's services invaluable, procured him a pension of £300 from the Irish Treasury. When Burke found, however, that in return for this benefit Hamilton expected him to bind himself body and soul to his service and to cast aside all loftier aims, he threw up the pension and severed his connection with this narrow-minded man. Not long thereafter, in 1765, Lord Rockingham was appointed prime minister, and Burke became his private secretary and, from that time on, his most loyal and devoted friend. Now began Burke's political career, and that rare opportunity for good to his country and to the world at large of which he so well availed himself. We shall trace that career here in the briefest compass, for we are concerned now only with its outcome in his political writings. He was returned in 1765 as a member of Parliament for the borough of Wendover, and in January, 1766, he made his opening speech, an argument favoring the petition sent to Parliament by the Stamp-Act Congress in America. "An Irishman, Mr. Burke, has sprung up in the House of Commons," said one of his contemporaries, "who has astonished everybody with the power of his eloquence and his comprehensive knowledge in all our exterior and internal politics and commercial interests." He represented Wendover until 1774, when he was returned from Bristol, a city at that time second in importance only to London itself. He sat in Parliament as the representative of Bristol until 1780, and thereafter for the town of Malton, which he continued to represent for the remainder of his parliamentary career. During this time his zeal for his country, and his love of virtue, justice, and good government showed themselves in a number of speeches which, by reason of their enduring literary qualities and the fire of eloquence which pervades them, are to-day regarded as classics. These were troublous times in England as well as in America. It may be that the conflict for American independence was bound to arise sooner or later, that no conciliation or concession on the part of England could have repressed that deep longing for unrestrained freedom which was made manifest during the war for American independence; but the thing which above all others nourished the seed and fertilized the ground, and hastened the growth from a mere germ to its fullest development, was corrupt government in England. No one saw this more clearly than courageously raised the warning cry. 66 Burke, and no one more Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents," a masterpiece in which he attempted to paint in clearest colors the evils that had attacked Parliament by the growth of royal influence. 66 In 1774, 1775, and 1777 appeared his famous speeches on the American question- the "Speech on American Taxation," the Speech on Conciliation with America," and the "Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol." His keen foresight and indefatigable labors in search of truth enabled him to see the situation in its fullest light, and in all its bearings. Others there were who, through love of justice and humanity, favored a more generous policy on the part of England toward her colonies in America; but none among the English saw so plainly as did he the outcome toward which the English spirit was tending. Not for a moment did he shrink from his duty. He knew the members of Parliament with whom he was dealing, and he knew that arguments based on sentiment or abstract ideas of right would have no force. He spoke out in plain words, and appealed to their reason and their own interest. "The question with me is not whether you have a right to render your people miserable, but whether it is not your |