thus concludes an eulogium upon him-" Whatever he has is his own; he owes the public nothing, whatever the public may owe to him. It is but just to his character to say that for honour, for integrity, and for ability, no man ever stood higher in public estimation in this kingdom; and I will add, but it is to you that I write, no man ever better deserved it." William Burke, writing about the same time, speaks the same language. Though no relation of Edmund, this gentleman was so much attached to him from boyhood, and so proud of the connexion, that, in the language of a friend of the family, "he would have knocked any man down who had dared to dispute the relationship."

The respectful admiration of his son equalled that of his brother and friend. During the last visit to Ireland in 1786, when Mr. Shackleton, after listening attentively to some ingenious and profound observations of his father, turned aside soon afterwards with his son and remarked in conversation, "he is the greatest man of the age; "He is," replied the son, with filial enthusiasm, and a very near approximation to the truth, "the greatest man of any age.” Dr. Parr, we have seen, was of the same opinion. Lord Thurlow's estimate of him has just been given. Dr. Lawrence's sentiments are on record; while a few living, and a host of dead friends, concurred in the same tone of admiration.

Nothing perhaps more strongly exhibits the homage paid to his vigour of mind than the influence it gave him over the most eminent men with whom political connexion brought him into close contact : over the Marquis of Rockingham, a man of sound

talents unquestionably; over Mr. Dowdeswell, and all the ablest of that party; over the Duke of Portland; over Mr. Fox; over Mr. Windham; over all his private friends without exception; over the most distinguished of the Old Whig party now living; over several of the coalition Ministry; in a considerable degree over Mr. Pitt and his colleagues in 1792, at least as much as the habitual pride, and jealousy of all political talents entertained by the Minister, would permit; and, on nearly all the great questions he embraced, eventually over the whole nation. If it require a strong understanding to gain a leading influence over even the ignorant and the weak, what must that be which subjects to its dominion the enlightened, and the powerful, and in talents not merely the great but the vast?

CHAPTER VIII.

His eloquence. His writings.-His leading principles as a
Statesman. Mr. Burke, Mr. Pitt, Mr. Fox.

Or the conception which we have been taught to entertain of what a great and commanding orator should be; whose moral character, as the ancients endeavour to impress upon us, ought to be pure; whose knowledge must be universal; whose genius serves to animate and adorn his knowledge; whose language flows at will; whose delivery is required to be impressive; whose powers of reasoning and imagination are equally strong; whose presence of mind rarely deserts him; whose readiness to combine all these qualities, or to draw upon each separately, as circumstances may require, is unlimited—there is no man, perhaps, in the history of English oratory, who comes near to Mr. Burke. It has been remarked with some truth, that his powers, if shared out, would have made half a dozen of good orators. It must at least be regarded as an uncommon coincidence that he should unite in an eminent degree nearly every one of the requisites which the critics of the classic days of Rome point out as necessary to the character. Others of the great political names of our country possess only two or three of the qualities here enumerated. Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox, for instance, equalled him in vigour of reasoning, in judgment, and in fluency; Mr. Sheridan in coolness,

promptitude and wit; Lord Chatham had the advantage in a bold, and indeed overpowering delivery, and perhaps, Lord Bolingbroke also in some degree; Charles Townshend in a peculiar parliamentary skill in seizing the favourable moment to push a subject, and in the adaptation of his powers to the point at issue, as well as to the present temper of the House, whatever temper that might be; but none of them possessed the combination peculiar to Mr. Burke. Neither had any of these eminent persons his originality of thought, his force of language, his striking phraseology, or that inexhaustible fertility upon every topic which constitutes the soul of eloquence, and which, when his opponents had little else to find fault with, they urged against him as a defect. He would seem therefore to have been cut out for a great orator, partly by some natural gifts, and partly by having grounded and reared himself upon the model which the Augustan age of literature recommends. And this must have been done at an early period of life; led to it probably not so much from any sanguine expectation of ever becoming the character which he admired, as by the expected duties of the profession he at first contemplated, or by that latent instinct which, without knowing precisely whither it tends, so often propels and guides in the pursuits of life.

A distinction may be made, and perhaps hold good, between a great orator and a debater. It has been said, that in the latter respect Mr. Fox acquired the superiority over all men. No speaker certainly was ever heard with more consideration by those opposed to him, or, perhaps, with so much partiality by those

whom he led in the House of Commons, as well from his unquestioned talents and popularity, as from the strong attachment of the latter to his person, which scarcely any other political leader has had the good fortune to secure, or to secure in the same degree. It will, nevertheless, be difficult to point out where Mr. Burke's presumed inferiority lay. In information, in wisdom upon all great occasions, and in variety of talents to secure them a favourable reception from his hearers, he had no equal; in readiness and vigour no superior; and he was accused of being frequent and fertile to a fault.

After all, however, it may be doubted whether this great reputed dexterity in debate of Mr. Fox, be any just criterion of the highest order of intellect, or whether his style which commonly accompanied it was of the highest style of oratory-that style which is not merely effective in the British Senate, but which commands the admiration of all men, of all countries, as the perfection of the art. Judged by this standard he comes much short of Mr. Burke. A good debater, although a character almost wholly English, as there was scarcely any such (their speeches being chiefly written) among the ancients, and little resembling him in the rest of Europe at the present day, is more of a mechanic, perhaps, than he is willing to acknowledge. His range is commonly narrowed, his aim bounded by local or temporary circumstances, which, though calculated to meet some petty interest or emergency of the moment, often become an obstacle to a very wide expansion of mind; he may be said to move within a moral circle, to work in a species of political tread-mill; and his art