horde of barbarians which the times and erroneous opinions have let loofe upon the world. No more doth the trumpet's found ennoble the minds of gentlemen to ftand forth, from motives of patriotifm, in defence of thefe hallowed fhores.

Our great ancestors, who on the plains of Creffy, Agincourt, and even Ramillies, reflected immortal honour on the British empire, may now blufh-when they fee a modern English gentleman, and a foldier, whofe pride is his dress; whofe character and morality are beneath criticifm, whose most joyful found is the rattling of dice, and moft valorous feats the kicking of a waiter.

Had Hampden and Sidney beheld, even a prototype of the modern foldier, who, while bedaubing his body with perfumes, is funk in the most infamous liberti nifm, they would have fighed for the fate of their country, but they would have defpaired of affifting her li berties.

Took's Court, 19th Sept. 1797.

JOHN FREDERIC RUNKEL.

MEMOIRS

OF THE

RIGHT HONOURABLE EDMUND BURKE.

(Continued from page 252.)

THE writings and fpeeches of Mr. Burke, are,

1. A Vindication of Natural Society, in Imitation of Bolingbroke.

2. A Philofophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful.

3. A Short Account of a late Short Administration. 4. Obfervations on a Publication, intituled, "The prefent State of the Nation."

5. Thoughts on the Caufe of the prefent Difcon

tents.

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6. Letter

6. Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol on the Affairs of

America, 1777.

7. Two Letters to Gentlemen in Bristol, on the Bills depending in Parliament relative to the Affairs of Ireland, 1778.

8. Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings of certain Societies in London relative to that Event.

9. Letter to a Member of the National Affembly: 10. Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs.

11. Letter to a Peer of Ireland on the Penal Laws against Irish Catholics.,

12. Letter to Sir Hercules Langrishe.

13. Letter from the Right Honourable Edmund Burke to a Noble Lord, on the Attacks made upon him and his Penfion, in the House of Lords, by the Duke of Bedford and the Earl of Lauderdale.

14. Two Letters addreffed to a Member of the prefent Parliament, on the Propofals for Peace with the Regicide Directory of France.

15. Letter to his Grace the Duke of Portland: containing Fifty-four Articles of Impeachment against the Right Honourable C. J. Fox.

COLLECTED SPEECHES.

1. On American Taxation, 1774. 2. On his Arrival at Bristol, 1774

3. At the Conclufion of the Poll, on his being declared duly elected, November 3, 1774.

4. On moving his Refolutions for Conciliation with the Colonies, March 22, 1775.

5. On a Plan for the better Security of the Independence of Parliament, and the economical Reformation of the Civil, and other Eftablishments, February 11, 1780.

6. At Bristol, previous to the Election, 1780. 7. On the Eaft India Bill, December 1, 1783.

S. On

8. On the Nabob of Arcot's Debts, February 28, 1785.

9. Representation to His Majefty, moved in the Houfe of Commons, June 14, 1784.

10. Subftance of the Speech on the Army Estimates, February 9, 1790.

His Vindication of Natural Society has ever been confidered as a mafter-piece of deception. It came near enough to Bolingbroke, in imitation of whom it was done, to cheat even the admirers of that nobleman. Nor does it effect all this at the coft of truth. While it profeffes the deftruction of governments, by a specious and general crimination, it is fo artfully contrived as to evince, at the fame inftant, the futility of what is thus advanced. We conclude our obfervations on this production, with a fentence from the preface. "Even

in matters which are, as it were, juft within our reach, what would become of the world if the practice of all moral duties, and the foundations of fociety, refted upon having their reafons made clear and demonftrative to every individual?”

Of the Enquiry on the Sublime and Beautiful, we have fpoken in the beginning of thefe Memoirs.

No publication of Mr. Burke's has been more celebrated than his Thoughts on the Caufes of the Present Difcontents. By the patriots of that day it was, at least, as highly esteemed, as it has been quoted by the patriots of this. It unveiled, with a difcriminating hand, the hidden fources of our national misfortunes: it revealed to us a double cabinet.

"The first part of the reformed plan was to draw a line which should feparate the court from the miniftry. Hitherto thefe names had been looked upon as fynonymous; but for the future, court and administration were to be confidered as things totally diflinet. By this operation, two fyftems of adminiftration were to be formed; one which fhould be in the real fecret and confidence; the other merely oftenfible, to perform the official and executory duties of government. The

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latter

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latter were alone to. he refponfible; whilst the real advisers, who enjoyed all the power, were effectually removed from all the danger.

"Secondly, A party under these leaders was to be formed in favour of the court against the miniftry this party was to have a large fhare in the emoluments of government, and to hold it totally feparate from, and independent of, oftenfible admi

niftration.

"The third point, and that on which the fuccefs of the whole fcheme ultimately depended, was to bring parliament to an acquiefcence in this project. Parliament was therefore to be taught by degrees a total indifference to the perfons, rank, influence, abilities, connexions, and character, of the minifters of the crown. By means of a difcipline, on which I fhall fay more hereafter, that body was to be habituated to the most oppofite interefts, and the most discordant politics. All connections and dependencies among fubjects were to be entirely diffolved. As hitherto business had gone through the hands of leaders of Whigs or Tories, men of talents to conciliate the people, and engage to their confidence; now the method was to be altered, and the lead was to be given to men of no fort of confideration or credit in the country. This want of natural importance was to be their very title to delegated power. Members of parliament were to be hardened into an infenfibility to pride as well as to duty. Thofe high and haughty fentiments, which are the great fupport of independence, were to be let down gradually. Point of honour and precedence were no more to be regarded in parliamentary decorum, than in a Turkish army. It was to be avowed as a conftitutional maxim, that the king might appoint one of his footmen, or one of your footmen, for minifter; and that he ought to be, and that he would be, as well followed as the first name for rank or wisdom in the nation. Thus parliament was to look on, as if perfectly unconcerned, while a cabal of the clofet and backtairs was fubftituted in the place of national administration.” "A minister of ftate will fometimes keep himself totally eftranged from all his colleagues; will differ from them in their councils, will privately traverse, and publicly oppose, their measures. He will, however, continue in his employ

ment.

Inftead of fuffering any mark of difpleasure, he will be diftinguished by an unbounded profufion of court rewards

and

and careffes; because he does what is expected, and all that is expected, from men in office. He helps to keep fome form of administration in being, and keeps it at the fame time as weak and divided as poffible."

"Conftitute government how you pleafe, infinitely the greater part of it must depend upon the exercife of the powers which are left at large to the prudence and uprightness of minifters of state. Even all the use and potency of the laws depends upon them. Without them, your commonwealth is no better than a scheme upon paper; and not a living, acting, effective conftitution. It is poffible, that through negligence, or ignorance, or defign, artfully conducted, minifters may fuffer one part of government to languish, another to be perverted from its purposes, and every valuable intereft of the country to fall into ruin and decay, without poffibility of fixing any fingle act on which a criminal profecution can be juftly grounded. The due arrangement of men in the active part of the state, far from being foreign to the purposes of a wife government, ought to be among its very first and dearest objects. When, therefore, the abettors of the new fyftem tell us, that between them and their oppofers there is nothing but a struggle for power, and that therefore we are no ways concerned in it; we muft tell thofe who have the impudence to infult us in this manner, that of all things we ought to be the most concerned, who, and what fort of men they are, that hold the truft of every thing that is dear to us. Nothing can render this a point of indifference to the nation, but what muft either render us totally defperate, or foothe us into the fecurity of ideots. We must soften into a credulity below the milkiness of infancy, to think all men virtuous. We mu be tainted with a malignity truly diabolical, to believe all the world to be equally wicked and corrupt. Men are in public life as in private, fome good, fome evil. The elevation of the one, and the depreffion of the other, are the first objects of all true policy. But that form of government, which, neither in its direct inftitutions, nor in their immediate tendency, has contrived 'to throw its affairs into the moft truft-worthy hands, but has left its whole executory fyftem to be difpofed of agreeably to the uncontrouled pleafure of any one man, however excellent or virtuous, is a plan of polity defective not only in that member, but confequentially erroneous in every part of it."