Election for Bristol-Speech at the Hustings-Popular Delusions Prevents the Rockingham Secession-Franklin-Absentee Tax- Alliance of France with America-Burke loses his Seat for Bris- Public Opinion of the Speech-On Economical Reform-Elo- quence of Public Men-Burke Retires from Bristol-Fine French Infidelity-Providential Protection of England-Riots of Burke's Taste for the Arts-Reynolds-Barry-Burke's Criticism on the Pictures at the Adelphi-True Cause of Republicanism, 270 MEMOIR OF THE POLITICAL LIFE OF THE RIGHT HON. EDMUND BUR K E. CHAPTER I. Value of Biography-Birth of Burke-Early Scenery-Education— Fondness for Milton-Destined to the Bar-Arrival in LondonProposes to go to America-Attacks Bolingbroke-Johnson's praise of Burke-Earl of Charlemont-Connexion with Single-Speech Hamilton. THE people of England are attached to liberty, and they are made for it. They have, by nature, a gravity of mind, which tends to save them from political rashness. They have a manliness which repels dishonourable submission to force. Thus, superior by their original temperament, alike to the extravagances of democracy, and to the severities of despotism, they alone, of all European nations, have been qualified to build up that last and noblest labour of utility and virtue, a free Constitution. Yet while nations are composed of men, they must be liable to error. Opinion must exhibit those currents and changes which defy, or astonish, the wisdom of the wise. Strong temptations to hasty aggrandizement, or rash terrors of public loss, must try the practical knowledge of the state; and England, with all her experience, vigour, and virtue, must take her share in those contingencies which compel nations to revert to first principles, and refresh their declining years by draughts from the original fountains of their fame. It is for such purposes that the lover of his country peculiarly values history. He opens the door of that great repository of the crime and frailties, of the genius and power, of ages which have gone down to the grave; less to gaze on them as curious specimens of the past, than as true instructors of the present. He sees in their configuration the secrets of the living frame, the sources of actual public strength, the organs of national renown, the fine impulses which give activity and force to the whole animated system of Empire. But the most effectual portion of history is that which gives down great men to the future; for it furnishes the mind of the rising generation with a model on which it can shape itself at once. The embodied virtue of the champion of truth and freedom there stands before us; the progress of ability and learning, of generous ambition and faithful principle, is displayed to the eye in all its successions; there is nothing ideal, nothing to be made up by fancy, or left to chance. The standard of excellence is palpable to the touch; and men can scarcely look upon this illustrious evidence of human capabilities, without unconsciously emulating its labours, and sharing its superiority. In giving a rapid view of the life of the celebrated |