subjects, like the present, derogatory to the dignity of the hu man intellect, we address the words of the great Bacon, the father of all true philosophy: "Excrevit autem mirum in modum istud malum ex opinione quadam, sive estimatione inveterata, verum tumida et damnosa; ininui nempe mentis humanæ majestatem, si experimentis et rebus particularibus sensui subjectis, et in materia determinatis, diù ac multum versetur; præsertim quum bujusmodi res ad inquirendum laboriosa, ad meditandum ignobiles, ad dicendum aspera, ad practicam illiberales, numero infinita et subtilitate tenues, esse soleant."

Wood....e

ART. XII. Memoirs of the Right Hon. 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. 4to. pp. 383. 18s. Boards. Sold at No. 168, (opposite Bond-street,) Piccadilly.

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the reader should hope to find in this work what may properly be called a life of Mr. Burke," he will be disappointed. Of the biographer of that singular man, it might reasonably be expected that he should disclose some of his early history, and should gratify curiosity by delineating some of those striking traits which must have strongly characterized a mind like his; that he should describe the process of that mental culture, by which his gigantic powers were raised to their full stature; that he should lead us into his closet, shew him to us in the character of husband, of father, and of friend; and, in a word, that he should make us acquainted not only with the statesman, the writer, and the orator, but with the MAN. This Mr. McCormick has not done. He tells. us but little of Mr. Burke's youth; and of his education, his habits, and his propensities, scarcely any thing. For his deficiency in this respect, indeed, he endeavours to compensate by a very ample detail of Mr. Burke's public life, of his literary productions, of his parliamentary speeches, and of the corresponding history of political parties. These, however, were already before the public, and might have been more satisfactorily known by a reference to Mr. Burke's works, or to the parliamentary history of his time, than by a perusal of the detached and partial, though copious, extracts in Mr. M'Cormick's

book.

One new anecdote of Mr. Burke's youth is indeed given in this volume, and but one; and of the truth of that no internal · evidence

7

evidence appears, nor is there any collateral circumstance to induce a belief of it. After having told us that Mr. Burke was born in the year 1729, near the town of Carlow in Ireland; that he was early placed under the instruction of a Mr. Shuckleton, (the name is Sheckleton,), an enlightened Quaker and schoolmaster at Ballytore in the county of Kildare; and that Mr. Burke's father, on finding a Shuckleton to train up the young orator, must have felt emotions like those of Philip, who, at the birth of Alexander, thanked the gols not so much for having blessed him with a son, as for that son's being born when an Aristotle lived;' Mr. McCormick proceeds

We may also very easily conceive how much the natural pride of the tutor must have been flattered and gratified by the rapidity of his scholar's progress. Yet, that pleasure was not wholly unmixt with mortification at perceiving the early dawn of genius obscured by some marks of an overbearing and intolerant spirit. The old Quaker often related the following anecdote with tears. A pamphlet had just been published, written with great virulence, though in a masterly style, against the Roman catholics of Ireland. Mr. SHUCKLETON put it into the hands of young BURKE, and desired to know his opinion of it. He thus expressed himself, after reading the work:—

The only fault I find in it is its being too concise, and not severe enough. Instead of a little duodecimo, were I to write on the subject I should make it a large quarto, and should give a keener edge to every argument; for I really think that our establishments both in church and state will never be secure, without an absolute exter mination of the papists."

For this tale, the author does not mention his authority; and the whole of Mr. B.'s subsequent conduct, public and private, tends to discredit it.

From Ballytore, Mr. B. was removed at the age of sixteen to Trinity College, Dublin; and in the second year of his re sidence there, (that is, at the usual time,) he obtained a scho larship-a reward which is bestowed in that university on those students who have made the greatest proficiency in classical learning. In 1749, Mr. B. having taken his Bachelor's degree, immediately came to London, and entered at the Middle Temple with a view of being called to the Bar.. Here, by an intense application to study, his health was so much impaired that his life was thought to be in danger. Dr. Nugent, who is said to have possessed great skill, and who appears certainly to have possessed great goodness of heart, was called in; and, finding Mr. B.'s situation in an inn of court but little calculated to facilitate his recovery, he invited him to accept an apartment in his house. Mr. B. did accept it; and during the course of his illness received such attention. from, the family of

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his

his kind physician, and particularly from Miss Nugent his daughter, as ultimately led to a matrimonial connection.

These are all the particulars of the private history of Mr. B.'s early life that we learn from these memoirs; and Mr. McCormick then proceeds to the history of Mr. Burke's publications. The first of these, "A Vindication of Natural Society; or a View of the Miseries and Evils arising to Mankind from every Species of Artificial Society, in a Letter to *** by a late Noble Writer," was written in imitation of Lord Bolingbroke, and, as the author afterward declared, was designed to demonstrate that the same engines, which were employed for the destruction of religion, might be used with equal success for the subversion of government; and that it was more easy to maintain a wrong cause, or give a gloss to ingenious falsehoods, than to establish a doubtful truth by solid arguments. The closeness of this imitation to its prototype is said to have deceived, at first sight, some of the best judges: but, whether considered as a sportive exercise of genius, or even as a serious attempt to lessen the number of Bolingbroke's admirers, it did not meet such a reception as its author had a right to expect. It fell, almost "dead-born from the press," without provoking censure, or exciting praise.

Failure in this first experiment did not discourage Mr. B. from publishing, in the same year (1756), his " Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas on the Sublime and Beautiful:" a work which he had composed prior to the "Vindication," but which he kept back in order to make his debut in the character of the deceased and popular nobleman. To the "Inquiry" Mr. B. did not put his name. So favourably, however, was it received by the public, that the first edition was sold within the year, and a second was published in 1757, with an "Introductory Discourse concerning Taste," and with several other improvements. From this essay, Mr. B. soon began to derive more substantial advantages than mere applause. It procured him from his father a remittance of an hundred pounds, to extricate him from some pecuniary embarrassments in which he was involved; and it also afforded him, we are told, an easy introduction to the best company. Dr. Johnson, Dr. Goldsmith, (one of Mr. B.'s fellow-students at college,) and Mr. afterward Sir Joshua Reynolds, were among the first who cultivated his acquaintance in London. Of Mr. B.'s connec tion with Sir Joshua, the result, according to Mr. McCormick, was highly advantageous, though in different ways, to both parties. In a word, Sir Joshua rose by borrowed wings to high literary fame, by his "Discourses to the Royal Academy;"

which Mr. Burke is said to have composed for him, while Sir Joshua repaid the obligation by very liberal pecuniary disburse ments. This is a very interesting assertion: but Mr. M'Cormick does not adduce such proofs of it as preclude all doubt. He says

Sir JOSHUA's literary fame owed not only its support but its very existence to Mr. BURKE. It was fortunate for the latter that Sir JOSHUA's ambition was not confined to the attainment of excellence in his own art, for which nature had eminently qualified him, but aspired to the higher sphere of eloquence, though he could rise to it only by borrowed wings After reading the Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful, he eagerly sought out the author, and endeavoured to secure his friendship. Sir JOSHUA's house was then, and continued to be, the favorite resort of men of merit. All were received with politeness and hospitality; but Mr. BURKE experienced the most flattering attention. Frequent intercourse left no doubt in Sir JOSHUA's mind, that the man who had written so well on the principles of the elegant arts in general, was best qualified to display the utmost refinement of taste, and brilliancy of genius in dissertations on painting in particular. The unbounded admiration with which Sir JOSHUA's discourses were afterwards heard, and are still read by the whole world, shews how judicious and happy he was in his choice of an assistant. It has hitherto been kept a secret not only from the public, but from the private friends of both, that those discourses were the production of Mr. BURKE's pen. This truth we shall fully illustrate, when we come to give an account of the institution of the Royal Academy.'

When he afterward comes to speak of the Academy, he

says;

As the Academy was to be opened on the second of January 1769 with an address from the President, Mr. BURKE prepared for the task with all the enthusiastic ardor, which friendship, gratitude, and a noble consciousness of his equality to the attempt, could inspire. This was a glorious occasion to shew a just sense of Sir JOSHUA's unparalleled liberality, and in return to afford him the fullest gratification of his wishes, to raise him at once to the very pinnacle of oratorical as well as professional eminence. The best things that had ever before appeared upon the subject sink into insignificance when compared with that masterpiece of eloquence.'

A short account of the manner in which those discourses were written will not be deemed uninteresting. Sir JOSHUA first made out a sketch of the subject, and furnished such hints as chiefly related to painting and sculpture. These Mr. BURKE took for his text, but did not restrain the effusions of his own genius upon any topic arising out of, or naturally connected with them. A copy was then sent to Sir JOSHUA, who, at his leisure, superadded any new ideas that occurred to him, and returned the performance interlined with those farther suggestions. Again the orator exerted his powers; and it frequently happened that the piece was re-written in this manner five

or six times with continual improvements, before it received the last
finishing touches of the great master. Thus did Mr. BURKE pursue
with unwearied assiduity the method of the most eminent painters in
their endeavours to approach perfection. "When," says he, "they
had conceived a subject, they first made a variety of sketches, then a
finished drawing of the whole; after that a more correct drawing of
every separate part, heads, hands, feet, and pieces of drapery; then
they painted the picture; and after all re-touched it from the life.
The pictures, thus wrought with such pains, now appear like the
effect of enchantment, as if some mighty genius had struck them off
at a blow." In the same manner, Mr. BURKE'S compositions,
though the result of indefatigable labour, have all the appearance of
natural ease,
and scem, as it were, to flow in rapid profusion from
the pen of the writer.

The share Mr. BURKE had in this great undertaking was for many years concealed not only from the public, but from the most intimate friends of both parties, with impenetrable secrecy. It is also a matter of no small surprise, that Dr. JOHNSON, and some other very accurate judges of stile, were not struck with the characteristical beauties of Mr. BURKE in every sentence of those famous discourses: but his name was never coupled with them: the eye of suspicion never glanced at him; and it is probable that the secret would have been buried with him, had not the assistance of his secretary been found necessary in making out fair copies, when the weakness of Sir JOSHUA's sight, a few years before his death, made the reading of Mr. BURKE's indistinct and crowded manuscripts extremely difficult. As men of very mild, unassuming manners, and who do not make a brilliant figure in company, are often found to write well, the same favorable opinion was formed of Sir JOSHUA by his literary friends, who could not help remarking the immense superiority of his public discourses to his private conversation.'

This assertion has been for some years confidently reported, is perhaps probable, and may be true but it does not seem to derive much support from any thing here advanced.

Animated by admiration of the historic labours of Hume and Robertson, and by a consciousness of his own strength, Mr. Burke (we are told) sketched a plan of memoirs of his own times, which he communicated to the elder Dodsley, and received from that discerning and worthy bookseller the most liberal encouragement to carry it into execution. Hence arose the "Annual Register;" which, beginning at the year 1758, was carried on under the auspices and principally by the labour of Mr. Burke, until the year 1789, when he declined the task, and transferred it to other hands.

In 1761, we find Mr. Burke accompanying Mr. Hamilton in his official capacity to Ireland: but a misunderstanding soon arising between him and his employers, he returned to England; having first, however, obtained a pension of 3001. per annum on the Irish establishment, which he afterward sold.