Whilst the compilation of the historical part of the "Annual Register" was gradually enlarging the capacity of Burke for political life, events were drawing near which were to place him in it. The talents of Burke had attracted the favourable attention of one of the worthiest and most patriotic noblemen of that age, James Caulfeild, fourth Viscount, and subsequently first Earl of Charlemont, an Irishman dear to the memory of his country. When Ireland had prepared to make her boldest strokes for a free trade, and then an uncontrolled constitution, the direction of the movement was intrusted to this Earl, as to one whom dangers

could not intimidate, nor gold corrupt. A unanimous election made him commander-in-chief of the famous volunteer army of 50,000 men, which included nobles, gentles, and commons, the

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very strength and sinews of the kingdom. To the Irish of every creed and party, the twenty years of independence achieved in 1780 and 1782—an oasis in the desert of their history—remain a gladsome and glorious remembrance. The Earl of Charlemont,

whose own lamp of existence went out just as the brilliant constitutional light he had lit up was flickering and about to expire in the socket, has his fame attached, in death as in life, to a past that Ireland seems proudly and unceasingly to doat upon. Among his many virtuous qualities, this good nobleman had peculiarly a love of protecting and advancing men of ability in their various avocations. He had read with delight the Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful, and he determined to serve its author: he sought his acquaintance, and a lasting friendship arose between them. In furtherance of his intention to aid Mr. Burke, Lord Charlemont introduced him to a personage then of political influence, the Right Hon. William Gerard Hamilton. This gentleman, who has since enjoyed a kind of bye-word reputation from his well-known nickname of Single-speech Hamilton, had risen into public notice through his own abilities, which were of no ordinary kind. The scion of a respectable legal family, he had received his education at Oriel College, Oxford, had entered on the profession of the law at Lincoln's Inn, and had early relinquished that career, and become, in 1754, a member of parliament. By one brilliant harangue, his only display of eloquence in the British House of Commons, Hamilton established his fortune. He was thereupon appointed a lord of trade under the then president, Lord Halifax. About the same time he came to know and to form a close alliance with Mr. Burke; indeed so intimate were they, and so readily did Hamilton acknowledge the extraordinary mental powers of his new friend, that rumour would have it that Burke had composed his single speech for him, which it seems was not the fact. In 1761 Lord Halifax became Lord Lieutenant of Ireland; Hamilton was named the chief secretary of his government, and Burke stepped into political life

by being appointed private secretary to Hamilton. He accompanied his patron to Ireland; and there is no doubt that the administration of Lord Halifax owed much of its prosperity to the confidential advice and aid of Burke. To him Lord Halifax was confessedly indebted for some of his best measures and best addresses. Hamilton did again in the Irish House of Commons what he had done in the British senate: he made one splendid oration and no more, and again was Burke supposed to be its author. Those who were best acquainted with Burke and Hamilton denied the reality of the report. The truth was most probably this Hamilton had talents and attainments fully adequate to the production of the speeches which he so strangely spoke, but he had great indolence also. He may too have felt peculiar enjoyment in this curious kind of celebrity, as, indeed, his very repetition of the act in the Irish House would go to show. His retirement upon a profitable sinecure office after a very few years of political labour, and his subsequent life spent in luxurious idleness, prove that the man made the exercise by starts and flashes of his genius available merely to procure him such public reputation as would not be inconsistent with private comfort and pleasure.

Hamilton might well and safely, while in office in Ireland, indulge in his sluggish propensities; there was another at work for him, ardent, aspiring, indefatigable. Burke felt himself launched on the political sea that was to waft him to a world of fame. He put every energy to his work; he quickly mastered the difficulties of his employment, and made the very drudgery subservient to the acquisition of official knowledge. Attentive to whatever passed around him, despising no routine, determined to learn the minutest particulars, he taught himself valuable lessons, whilst he toiled successfully for a government that was reaping the harvest of such rare assistance. Two years passed in this way made Burke an accomplished official; yet during these same two years, public labour was not his sole avocation. It was once observed by him, "that idleness filled up a man's time much more

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completely, and left him less his own master, than any sort of employment whatsoever." He was himself a living proof of the truth of his maxim. He seemed to have time for every thing. Despite of official occupation, he adhered to his literary pursuits; he renewed his associations with many of his former instructors and contemporaries at Trinity College. One evening at least in each week would he spend with them in conversation and discussion upon learned subjects. There his love of society found for him new friends—many of them great names, that were to flow down upon the tide of time- -names such as Lord Pery, Sir Hercules Langrishe, and Henry Flood. Then, again, there was his domestic hearth; there were his visits of affection. Burke never forgot nor forsook. He travelled to Cork to spend some time

with his brother Garrett.

Kilcolman and the loved scenes of his childhood saw him once more wandering amongst them; even the old Irish schoolmaster, O'Halloran, who taught him his rudiments, had a call and a warm shake of his hand. To Ballitore and the Shackletons, Burke of course must also go. Mr. and Mrs. Shackleton returned the visit at Dublin Castle, then Edmund's abode by virtue of his office. The incident that occurred when they went there recals a similar story of the famous Bourbon prince, Henry the Great. The Shackletons, instead of finding, as they expected, the incipient statesman immersed in government affairs, surprised him with his children, carrying one of them on his back, all fours, round the room, whilst the other, an infant, lay crowing with delight upon the carpet.

Burke's useful industry in the service of the Irish government received a substantial acknowledgment in the grant, on the 14th of April, 1763, of a pension of 300l. per annum. This he enjoyed hardly two years; for, discovering that official work was not to be the sole consideration of the income, his pride revolted, and he spurned a favour that touched his honour. He resigned the pension, transferring it to Mr. Colthurst, Mr. Hamilton's solicitor, on the 10th of April, 1765; and he broke off all further connexion

with Hamilton himself. The real particulars of this affair have come to light by the publication of a letter from Burke to his friend, the eminent statesman, Henry Flood, dated the 18th May, 1765, and to be found in the Burke Correspondence of Lord Fitzwilliam and Sir Richard Bourke. The communication marks Burke's lofty and independent spirit; it commences and proceeds thus: My dear Flood,—I thank you for your very kind and most obliging letter. You are a person whose good offices are not snares, and to whom one may venture to be obliged, without danger to his honour. As I depend upon your sincerity, so I shall most certainly call upon your friendship, if I should have any thing to do in Ireland. This, however, is not the case at present, at least in any way in which your interposition may be employed, with a proper attention to yourself, a point which I shall always very tenderly consider in any applications I make to my friends. It is very true that there is an eternal rupture between me and Hamilton, which was on my side neither sought nor provoked; for though his conduct in public affairs has been for a long time directly contrary to my opinions, very reproachful to himself, and utterly disgustful to me; and though in private he has not justly fulfilled one of his engagements to me, yet I was so uneasy and awkward at coming to a breach, where I had once a close and intimate friendship, that I continued with a kind of desperate fidelity to adhere to his cause and person; and when I found him greatly disposed to quarrel with me, I used such submissive measures as I never before could prevail upon myself to use to any The occasion of our difference was not any act whatsoever on my part; it was entirely on his; by a voluntary but most insolent and intolerable demand, amounting to no less than a claim of servitude during the whole course of my life, without leaving me at any time a power either of getting forward with honour, or of retiring with tranquillity. This was really and truly the substance of his demand upon me, to which I need not tell you I refused, with some degree of indignation, to submit. On this we

man.