impaired his health. Threatening symptoms of a consumptive character became too alarming to be further trifled with; and Burke quitted his books and went to recruit at Bath, a place he had before visited for the same purpose with success. He had here already formed an acquaintance, that of his compatriot Dr. Christopher Nugent, a physician of repute, whose talents were now to save the life, and whose hospitality was to bring about the happiness of his patient. The Doctor, finding Burke too ill to remain in lodgings, generously took him into his own house, in accordance with a custom with medical men, formerly not of unfrequent occurrence in the hospitable country whence the Doctor came.* Tender attention and skilful treatment, not from the Doctor only, but all his family, had soon a more powerful effect than any medicine in producing restoration to health. Among the most watchful of the patient and guest was the Doctor's daughter, Jane Mary Nugent, whose amiable solicitude soon excited a passion in the sensible heart of Burke. He offered her his hand, which she accepted; and during a long life of various vicissitudes and trying situations, he had, in her soothing and affectionate conduct, every reason to rejoice at his lot.

A few words here of the lady's father and his descendants. Christopher Nugent, M.D., was the scion of a highly respectable family in Westmeath in Ireland, but was himself born to a scanty inheritance. He made a runaway match with the daughter of Colonel Leake, of Holycross, in the county of Tipperary, and by

* In proof of this the following fact, in the writer's own knowledge, may be related. Some few years ago an English traveller in Ireland was suddenly laid up with a severe illness at the inn at Birr, or Parsonstown, in the King's Co. The physician of the place, the late very eminent Dr. Hubert Kelly, being called in, saw the seriousness of the case, and the necessity for the most watchful care. Without further to do, he insisted on taking the invalid home with him, and there he actually retained him for six months, until he effected his complete cure. On the traveller's leaving, the Doctor would not listen to the mention of any professional remuneration, as he had looked on his patient only in the light of a guest.

MRS. BURKE-DR. NUGENT.

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the timely aid of his wife's fortune, which was a large one, was enabled to complete his medical studies, and settle in Bath as a physician. By his union with Miss Leake, Dr. Nugent had a son and a daughter. The daughter was the wife of Edmund Burke ; the son was John Nugent, Esq., of London, Surveyor-General of the Customs, who married Lucy, daughter of Garrett Nagle, Esq., of Ballyduff, county Cork, and left two sons and six daughters. The elder son was Christopher Richard Nugent, Esq. (since deceased), who married a daughter of Thomas Nash, Esq., of Guilford Street, London, an eminent Oporto merchant, and had a family. Christopher Nugent's younger son was Thomas Nugent, Esq., who died unmarried, at Pau, in France. Of the six daughters of Christopher Nugent, five are still living, viz. Jane, married to Henry Barnewall, Esq., of London, and Richmond Hill, Surrey, a scion of the family of Barnewall, Baronets, of Crickstown Castle, county Meath; Catherine, widow of Captain St. Leger Hill, of the 12th Lancers; Mary, married to the Ven. Isaac Wood, Archdeacon of Chester; Lucy and Elizabeth, unmarried. The sixth daughter, now deceased-the youngest-Margaret, was wedded to James, son of the late James Hill, Esq., of Craig, county Cork.

The marriage of Edmund Burke with Miss Nugent took place in the spring of 1757. This union, as above stated, was most fortunate. Of high intellect, of gentle disposition and pleasing manners, the lady proved herself every way worthy of such a husband. Gratified and proud at having won the attachment of so good and great a man, she loved almost to idolatry, and her husband's happiness became the darling object of her life. Burke returned her devotion with the full warmth and energy of his chivalrous nature. His affection was deep, ardent, unchangeable; his felicity centred in his wife's society and in the home she secured him. The incessant agitation of his public life found there a haven and a refuge. His language touching that, his cherished sanctuary, is beautifully expressive. "Every care," would he say, "vanishes the moment I enter under my own roof."

D

Burke returned from Bath with his bride to London, where his father-in-law soon after joined him, and took up his residence with him—an arrangement that turned out very agreeable to all parties. Dr. Nugent was not only a man of esteemed professional ability, but he had much general information and very pleasing manners. He had published some essays, chiefly on medical subjects, and, as a literary man and a social companion, had gained one important step-the favourable attention of Dr. Johnson. Burke's house in Wimpole Street became a point of increased attraction to his friends. The expenses of extended housekeeping and augmented society added force to Burke's exertions in literature, still the chief resource of his livelihood. In January 1757 appeared a very able descriptive sketch of the British American colonies, entitled "An Account of the European Settlements in America." This work, which had much success, was understood to be the joint production of Edmund Burke, of his brother Richard, and of a friend and relative, a Mr. William Burke, whose name will frequently occur in this biography. No doubt the labour bestowed upon it not a little aided Burke's subsequent master-display of knowledge on the American question. A new edition of the "Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful"—the result of a rapid sale, and the forerunner of many and many an edition to come—brought from Mr. Burke's father a present of 1007., in admiration of his son's literary success, and in forgiveness of that which had temporarily vexed him-Edmund's neglect and abandonment of the legal profession. To this edition was first annexed the introductory chapter on "Taste."

In 1757 Mr. Burke published the commencement of an English History. He had written it some years before, and his further proceeding with it was, it seems, stopped by his hearing that Hume had entered on the same topic. Literature suffered a loss by this suspension of his labours; for, all-valuable as Hume's history proved to be, the few chapters which exist of that by Burke give sample of a composition of a character so different from that of

ESSAY ON ENGLISH HISTORY.

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Hume, yet so peculiar and excellent in its way, that, instead of interfering with, it would have added to the public benefit conferred by such writers as Hume, Robertson, and Gibbon. Mr. Burke entitled the few sheets he brought out "An Essay towards an Abridgment of English History, from the invasion of Julius Cæsar to the end of the reign of King John." The work teems with the sense and philosophy of its author. It differs much in language and thought from the great histories of Burke's own time. It exhibits little of their dazzling, yet but too often deceptive diction, but adopts rather the earnest and contemplative mode of writing pursued by later historians, such as Roscoe, Hallam, and Mackintosh. It is a pity that, while the "Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful" continues so popular, these chapters on early English history-perhaps the abler production of the twoshould have sunk into comparative oblivion. Few accounts of the period of Anglo-Saxon rule in England are better than that given by Mr. Burke, or more likely to assist those seeking knowledge on the subject.*

* In portraying individuals, Burke is often scarcely less felicitous than Hume. His characters of William the Conqueror, Lanfranc, and Henry II., which were much admired when the work appeared, gracefully prove this. They are as follow:

WILLIAM I.-LANFRANC.

"There is nothing more memorable in history than the actions, fortunes, and character of this great man (William); whether we consider the grandeur of the plans he formed, the courage and wisdom with which they were executed, or the splendour of that success, which, adorning his youth, continued without the smallest reserve to support his age, even to the last moments of his life. He lived above seventy years, and reigned within ten years as long as he lived-sixty over his dukedom, above twenty over England--both of which he acquired or kept by his own magnanimity, with hardly any other title than he derived from his arms; so that he might be reputed in all respects, as happy as the highest ambition the most fully gratified can make a man. The silent inward satisfactions of domestic happiness he neither had nor sought. He had a body suited to the character of his mind-erect, firm, large, and active, whilst to be active was a praise; a countenance stern, and which became command. Magnificent in his living, reserved in his conversation, grave in his common deportment, but relaxing

The opening of the year 1758 brought with it the birth of a son to Edmund Burke-a precious but a fatal gift. After the

with a wise facetiousness, he knew how to relieve his mind and preserve his dignity; for he never forfeited by a personal acquaintance that esteem he had acquired by his great actions. Unlearned in books, he formed his understanding by the rigid discipline of a large and complicated expe→ rience. He knew men much, and therefore generally trusted them but little; but when he knew any man to be good, he reposed in him an entire confidence, which prevented his prudence from degenerating into a vice, He had vices in his composition, and great ones; but they were vices of a great mind-ambition, the malady of every extensive genius; and avarice, the madness of the wise. One chiefly actuated his youth; the other governed his age. The vices of young and light minds, the joys of wine, and the pleasures of love, never reached his aspiring nature. The general run of men he looked on with contempt, and treated with cruelty when they opposed him. Nor was the rigour of his mind to be softened but with the appearance of extraordinary fortitude in his enemies, which by a sympathy, congenial to his own virtues, always excited his admiration, and insured his mercy; so that there were often seen in this one man, at the same time, the extremes of a savage cruelty, and a generosity that does honour to human nature. Religion, too, seemed to have a great influence on his mind from policy, or from better motives; but his religion was displayed in the regularity with which he performed its duties, not in the submission he showed to its ministers, which was never more than what good government required. Yet his choice of a counsellor and favourite was (not according to the mode of the time) out of that order, and a choice that does honour to his memory: this was Lanfranc, a man of great learning for the times, and extraordinary piety, He owed his elevation to William; but though always inviolably faithful, he never was the tool or flatterer of the power that raised him; and the greater freedom he showed, the higher he rose in the confidence of his master. By mixing with the concerns of state he did not lose his religion and conscience, or make them the covers or in-. struments of ambition; but tempering the fierce policy of a new power by the mild lights of religion, he became a blessing to the country in which he was promoted. The English owed to the virtue of this stranger, and the influence he had on the king, the little remains of liberty they continued to enjoy, and at last such a degree of his confidence as in some sort counterbalanced the severities of the former part of his reign."

HENRY II.

"John was Henry II.'s youngest and favourite child. In him he reposed all his hopes, and consoled himself for the undutifulness of his other