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KW 3000 A18.

274 38

MEMOIRS

OF

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

EDMUND BURKE;

OR,

AN IMPARTIAL REVIEW

OF

HIS PRIVATE LIFE, HIS PUBLIC CONDUCT,

HIS SPEECHES IN PARLIAMENT,

AND THE DIFFERENT PRODUCTIONS OF HIS PEN,

WHETHER POLITICAL OR LITERARY.

INTERSPERSED WITH

A VARIETY OF CURIOUS ANECDOTES,

AND

EXTRACTS FROM HIS SECRET CORRESPONDENCE

WITH

SOME OF THE MOST DISTINGUISHED CHARACTERS IN EUROPE.

BY CHARLES M CORMICK, LL. B.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, AND SOLD BY HIM AT NO. 168, OPPOSITE

BOND-STREET, PICCADILLY.

1797

KONINKL.

BIBLIOTHEEK

TE'SHAGE.

A SKETCH of the following work was written about two years ago for a Magazine. The general notice, which it then excited, would not have induced the author to fill up the outline, or to engage in an undertaking of such magnitude, had he not been since supplied with some materials of too much importance to be withheld from the people of England, and of too much delicacy to be safely laid before them in any other form than that of biographical or historical illustrations. They throw great light on the secret intrigues of the British cabinet during the most eventful period of our history.

It would have been easy to give the work a higher finishing in a little more time; but the praise of masterly execution appeared of little consequence, when compared with the advantages which the country was likely to derive from the immediate diffusion of such interesting truths. Data tempore prosint.

The early part of Mr. BURKE's life is rapidly passed over, as the events are taken from mere reports, the fidelity of which it was impossible to ascertain without greater trouble than they seemed to deserve; but, from the commencement of his public career, every step has been traced with the utmost care; and every fact has been established upon indisputable authorities.

In reply to the Injunction, which Mrs. BURKE was persuaded by some silly and malicious advisers to solicit, the author of the following Memoirs has only to observe, that the Injunction might have been addressed to Mr. BURKE's ghost with as much propriety as to him. He would be the last man in the world to touch "the widow's mite,"--to invade her inheritance either of Mr. BURKE's literary property, or dearly earned pensions: but he does not conceive that the right of publishing remarks on the speeches and writings of others expired with Mr. BURKE; and he certainly has not carried that liberty to a greater extent than was exercised by the right honourable gentleman during his whole life.

1

OF THE

RIGHT HONOURABLE

EDMUND BURKE.

IN order to avoid confufion in the most variegated landscape» the painter need only fix upon one striking point of view, and,. by the magic of his pencil and colours, make every surrounding. object tend, as it were, to that center of unity. But the rich fcenery of genius will by no means admit of the like artifice or method. Its branches are often fo luxuriant and expansive, that each of them completely fills the eye, and precludes the idea of fecondary importance. There are few characters to which this remark is more juftly applicable than to that of Mr. Burke. The liveliness of his fancy, and the accuracy of his judgment ---the grafp of his memory, and the fertility of his invention ;---the vigor of his native powers, and his immense acquirements by learning and study;---feem almost equally to attract our notice,. and to excite our admiration. Poffeffing as great a command of - the pen as of the tongue, he is one of the rare inftances to be met with, either in ancient or modern times, of men who have united the talents of speaking and writing with irresistible force and elegance. He has risen to no less distinction in the literary than in the political world, and may be faid to have shone with

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