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THE BURKE CORRESPONDENCE.

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1807, and in the Peninsular War.

He has since been Governor

of the Cape of Good Hope from 1825 to 1828, and of New South Wales from 1831 to 1837. In both these places, and particularly in the latter, the rule of Sir Richard effected much public good. Mr. Sidney, in his justly popular work,," The Three Colonies of Australia," gives a glowing description of the benefits conferred in New South Wales by the wise administration of Sir Richard Bourke. Sir Richard's statue has been erected at Sydney. Sir Richard, who is distantly related to the great Edmund, and who while a schoolboy and college student in England used to pass his vacations at Beaconsfield during the last years of the statesman's life, married, in March 1800, Elizabeth Jane (now deceased), the youngest daughter of Edmund Burke's friend, John Bourke, Esq., of the city of London and of Carshalton, Surrey, who is mentioned above at p. 121 of this biography, and who, after eventually filling the office of receiver-general of the landtax in Middlesex, died some years ago. For the descent of this Mr. John Bourke, a native of Castlebar and a scion of the house of Bourke, Earls of Ulster, as well as for a further account of the pedigree and family of Sir Richard Bourke, see the "Dictionary of the Landed Gentry," vol. i. p. 123. Sir Richard Bourke, in conjunction with the present Earl Fitzwilliam, has edited a valuable collection of letters from or to Edmund Burke or his family-a correspondence which forms a most important and interesting addition to Burke's other published writings and speeches. This collection, to which reference has been frequently made in the course of this biography, is now included in the new edition of Edmund Burke's works ;* the whole forming treasures

* A new and complete Edition of the Works and Correspondence of the Right Hon. Edmund Burke. In 8 vols. 8vo. Containing-1. Mr. Burke's Correspondence between the year 1744 and his decease in 1797, first published from the original MSS. in 1844, edited by Earl Fitzwilliam and Sir Richard Bourke. 2. The works of Mr. Burke, as edited by his literary executors, and completed under the superintendence of the late Bishop of Rochester, Dr. Walker King. (Rivingtons. 1852.)

of wisdom and eloquence that have seldom, if ever, been rivallednever surpassed—“ exemplaria,” in fact, regarding which, the student or even adept in political and other knowledge, may well follow the classical direction: Nocturnâ versate manu, versate diurnâ. Reference to this collection recalls also the necessity of pointing attention to those interesting discourses on the writings and character of Burke, published a few years ago, which Alfred A. Fry, Esq., a learned counsel of Lincoln's Inn, has delivered, with merited applause, in most of the public lecture-rooms in the kingdom.

Edmund Burke was buried in a wooden coffin only. A kind of traditionary report, current in Beaconsfield and its vicinity, will have it, that, sensible of the hatred he had incurred from the Jacobins, this great opponent of revolutionary France desired his body to have but a wooden covering, the sooner to decay, because he apprehended it might be taken up and be made a show of at some future period, should the violent faction he denounced obtain, through the supineness of government, a powerful footing in this country. Be this strange reason the real one or not, Burke was certainly so coffined at first; but his remains, of which only the bones were found on the reopening, have been since encased in lead, and deposited in a vault beneath his own pew in Beaconsfield Church. A tablet in the south aisle of this church bears the following inscription :

"Near this place lies interred all

that was mortal of the

RIGHT HONOURABLE EDMUND BURKE,

Who died on the 9th of July, 1797, aged 68 years,
In the same grave are deposited the remains of his only Son,
RICHARD BURKE, ESQ.,

Representative in Parliament for the borough of Malton,
Who died the 2d August, 1794, aged 35:
Of his Brother,
RICHARD BURKE, ESQ.,

Barrister-at-law and Recorder of the city of Bristol,
Who died on the 4th February, 1794:
And of his Widow,

JANE MARY BURKE,

Who died on the 2d April, 1812, aged 78."

EDMUND BURKE'S REPRESENTATIVES.

307

Two ages, as will be perceived, are not here correctly given. Edmund Burke at his death was not sixty-eight, but in his sixtyeighth year. His son's age should have been stated as thirty

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Of Mr. Burke's immediate family, none survived himself but his widow, and his niece, Mrs. Haviland, and her son. Mrs. Burke remained, for the rest of her life, at Gregories; her death

occurred on the 2d of April, 1812. During nearly the whole period of her widowhood, until a short time before her demise, Mrs. Burke had the benefit of the constant companionship and affectionate attention of Mrs. Haviland, who was, as already stated, the only daughter of Mr. Burke's only sister, Mrs. French, and the relict of Colonel Thomas Haviland, who died in 1795, not long after his union with her.

Mrs. Haviland, who had refused a very splendid offer of a second marriage, left Beaconsfield prior to Mrs. Burke's decease, and went to live at Brompton, where she died in 1816. Her son, Thomas William Aston Haviland, who was born in August 1795, and was educated at Westminster school, assumed, by sign manual, the additional surname and arms of Burke. The Royal License, which bears date the 6th April, 1818, sets forth that Mr. Haviland Burke was only child of Thomas Haviland, Esq., by Mary his wife, only child of Patrick French, Esq., of Loughrea, and Julia, his wife, which Julia was sister of the Right Hon. Edmund Burke, of Butlers' Court, Beaconsfield; and that the name and arms of Burke were granted in memory of "that most distinguished statesman, the said Edmund Burke." Mr. Haviland Burke was called to the English bar, by the Hon. Society of Lincoln's Inn, the 18th Nov. 1819, and practised as a conveyancer and in the courts of Chancery. The law, however, was less to his taste than devotion to the fine arts. After some

years he withdrew from the legal profession altogether, being in possession of a competent independence. He became a great collector of prints, pictures, and autographs; and in course of time he amassed a large and rare collection of these, to the value of several thousand pounds.

In connexion with these subjects, Mr. Haviland Burke possessed a fund of information: his agreeable society was much sought and courted by his brother collectors and other men of knowledge and ability. Mr. Haviland Burke had many of the amiable and benevolent characteristics of his illustrious grand

uncle.

66

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"His heart," says the Gentleman's Magazine, in a memoir of him, was cast in the tenderest mould, and few restraints were put upon its generous impulses. Such patronage as he could bestow was not withheld from more than one painter of merit when in difficulties. . . . Irish by descent, and possessing an Irish estate, the St. Patrick's charity early in life won his especial regard, which was never afterwards for a moment remitted.

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His activity and perseverance in the cause drew general notice.... To another charitable institution, the Middlesex Hospital, of which he was chairman, he was almost equally devoted. Both institutions at his death voted addresses of condolence to his family."

Mr. Haviland Burke married, in 1827, Harriet, third daughter of William Minshull, Esq., of Kentish Town, the descendant of

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