many interests even for the authority of those who were in; putting aside the complication and difficulty presented in every stage of its progress.

"It must remain," said Mr. Dunning in a burst of admiration," as a monument to be handed down to posterity of his uncommon zeal, unrivalled industry, astonishing abilities, and invincible perseverance. He had undertaken a task big with labour and difficulty; a task that embraced a variety of the most important objects, extensive and complicated; yet such were the eminent and unequalled abilities, so extraordinary the talents and ingenuity, and such the fortunate frame of the honourable gentleman's mind, his vast capacity and happy conception, that in his hands, what must have proved a vast heap of ponderous matter, composed of heterogeneous ingredients, discordant in their nature and opposite in principle, was so skilfully arranged as to become quite simple as to each respective part, dependant on each other; and the whole at the same time so judiciously combined, as to present nothing to almost any mind tolerably intelligent, to divide, puzzle, or distract it."

"Mr. Burke's Reform bill," says the historian Gibbon, "was framed with skill, introduced with eloquence, and supported by numbers. Never can I forget the delight with which that diffusive and ingenious orator was heard by all sides of the House, and even by those (Gibbon himself was one of them) whose existence he proscribed."

Only one sentiment," remarks another contemporary who voted against the measure, "per

vaded the House and the nation, on the unexampled combination of eloquence, labour, and perseverance which had been displayed by their enlightened author. They covered with astonishment and admiration even those who, from principle or from party, appeared most strenuous in opposing the progress of the bill itself through every stage."

Innumerable testimonies of the same kind might be quoted even from some of the Ministry, who were nevertheless ingenious enough to oppose in detail what they applauded in the gross. A considerable part of March, April, and May, were occupied in debating the different clauses for abolishing the office of third Secretary of State was lost on the 8th of the former month by a majority of seven, after one of the hardest fought contests ever remembered.

that

Five days afterwards, however, by the irresistible effect of the wit of the mover, as much as his eloquence, sentence of death was passed on the poor, Board of Trade by a majority of eight; the two thousand three hundred folio volumes of its labours, rather unluckily urged by Mr. Eden in its defence, being ridiculed with such inimitable effect by the mover, as to be, in the opinion of many, the chief cause of condemnation; execution, however, was contrived to be delayed for the present. A week afterwards the sentiments of the House seemed unexpectedly changed by other clauses in the bills being rejected by great majorities.

A proposal by Lord North to give the India Company the three years' notice previous to the

dissolution of their charter, produced a speech of great fervour and animation from the Member for Bristol; he supported a bill for suspending the elective franchise of revenue officers, and also the famous resolution of Mr. Dunning, that the increasing influence of the Crown ought to be diminished.

Amid these duties he found time (April 4th) to write a letter on the affairs of Ireland, enforcing his former opinions, to John Merlott, Esq. of Bristol. Eight days afterwards another was addressed to the chairman of the Buckinghamshire meeting for obtaining Parliamentary Reform; a scheme which he considered ineffectual to its intended purpose, and and pregnant with danger. The results, he said, of all his reading, all his thinking, all his practical and Parliamentary knowledge, all his communications with the most experienced and able men, were against the change-"Please God," added he emphatically, "I will walk with caution, whenever I am not able clearly to see my way before me."

About this time, a few petitions to repeal the indulgences granted to the Catholics two years before, excited to action the Protestant associations under Lord George Gordon; a moody fanatic, whose talents were contemptible, his language in the House often coarse and reprehensible, sometimes almost treasonable, though disregarded as the ravings of a half-madman. He had moved, without finding a seconder, that the petition presented by Mr. Burke the preceding session, from the Catholic sufferers by the riots in Scotland," be

thrown over the table;" and now, to give further proofs of his zeal, called together, " for the honour of God," the rabble of London. The consequences were the riots; one of the most disgraceful pages in our history, when the powers of the members of government, seemingly sunk in hopeless apathy, waited to be roused by the spirit and good sense of the King, who, by taking the responsibility upon himself of ordering the military to act, restored the metropolis to the dominion of order and law.

In the exigency of the moment, when Mr. Fox, with inconsiderate party feelings, refused to strengthen the hands of government, Mr. Burke, much to his honour, strongly recommended it; advising him to forget all differences in unanimity and defensive associations. As a powerful advocate of the persecuted sect, the fanatical feeling ran strongly against him among some of the leaders; his residence in the broad sanctuary was more than once heard to be threatened, he was reviled as a Jesuit in disguise, nick-named Neddy St. Omer's, and caricatured as a monk stirring the fires of Smithfield, in addition to much more vituperation. Trusting, however, to a considerable share of popularity, or believing that the bulk of the mob, being bent on plunder and riot, cared little for any thing else, he did not hesitate to mix with a party of them, and experienced no personal ill-will. His own notice of the adventure, written soon after to Mr. Shackleton, is as follows:

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"My wife being safely lodged, I spent part of the next day in the street amidst this wild assem

bly, into whose hands I delivered myself, informing them who I was. Some of them were malignant and fanatical, but I think the far greater part of those whom I saw were rather dissolute and unruly than very ill disposed. I even found friends and well-wishers among the blue-cockades."

Few things do more credit to the active and perhaps sensitive humanity of this eminent man, than his zealous though unostentatious endeavours for the extension of the royal mercy to the chief part of the unhappy rioters who now awaited the awful retribution of the law. With this view he drew up some reflections on the approaching executions, and exerted his influence in pressing letters to the Lord Chancellor, Lord Mansfield, the President of the Council, and the Secretary to the Treasury, to submit his opinions to his Majesty and Lord North. Public justice, he urged, ought to be satisfied with the smallest possible number of victims; that numerous executions, far from increasing, diminished the solemnity of the sacrifice; anticipating in this respect the general feeling of the present day, that if not absolutely characteristic of a sanguinary disposition, they are certainly not useful. The letters and reflections appear in his Works.

For the original instigators of the tumults, however, he had no such consideration, uttering against them in Parliament several bitter anathemas ; they, he said, and not the ignorant and misled multitude, ought to be hanged; and when some of the leading" Associators" were seen in the lobby