utterance to his feelings in the work just referred to, Reflections on the Revolution in France. On no one of his works did he bestow such care. While going through the press, more than a dozen proofs were made before his critical taste was satisfied. The effect of the publication was prodigious, not only in England, but throughout Europe; and honors and emoluments were showered upon the author from every quarter.

Impeachment of Warren Hastings.-The greatest work of Burke's public life was his Impeachment of Warren Hastings. Unfortunately, his speech on this occasion was not written out by the author. The traditions of it that remain, however, leave little doubt that it was one of the greatest efforts of parliamentary eloquence in ancient or modern times. Burke was offered a peerage. Having just lost his only surviving son, he declined the barren honor; and in A Letter to a Noble Lord, writ-ten soon after, he gives expression to his feeling of loneliness and bereavement in terms of singular beauty and pathos. Burke's Parliamentary Speeches fill several volumes, and form an enduring monument to his fame as a great philosophical statesman, while his essay on The Sublime and Beautiful, and his Reflections on the Revolution in France, challenge to themselves a foremost place among the great English classics.

"No one can doubt that enlightened men in all ages will hang over the Works of Mr. Burke. He was a writer of the first class, and excelled in almost every kind of prose composition. The extraordinary depth of his detached views, the penetrating sagacity which he occasionally applies to the affairs of men and their motives, and the curious felicity of expression with which he unfolds principles, and traces resemblances and relations, are separately the gift of few, and, in their union, probably without any example. When he is handling any one matter, we perceive that we are conversing with a reasoner and a teacher to whom almost every other branch of knowledge is familiar. Ilis views range over all the cognate subjects; his reasonings are derived from principles applicable to other matters as well as the one in hand; arguments pour in from all sides, as well as those which start up under our feet, the natural growth of the path he is leading us over; while, to throw light round our steps, and either explore its darker places or serve for our recreation, illustrations are fetched from a thousand quarters; and an imagination marvellously quick to descry unthought-of resemblances, pours forth the stores, which a lore yet more marvellous has gathered from all ages and nations and arts and tongues. We are, in respect of the argument, reminded of Bacon's multifarious knowledge, and the exuberance of his learned fancy; while the many-lettered diction recalls to mind the first of English poets and his immortal verse, rich with the spoils of all sciences and all times.

"All his works, indeed, even his controversial, are so informed with general reflec tion, so variegated with speculative discussion, that they wear the air of the Lyceum as well as the Academy. His narrative is excellent; and it is impossible more harmoniously to expose the details of a complicated subject, to give them more animation and interest, if dry in themselves, or to make them bear by the mere power of statement more powerfully upon the argument. In description he can hardly be surpassed, at least for effect; he has all the qualities that conduce to it, ardor of purpose, some

times rising into violence, vivid, but too luxuriant fancy,-bold, frequently extravagant, conception, the faculty of shedding upon mere inanimate scenery the light imparted by moral associations.

"He now moves on with the composed air, the even, dignified pace of the historian; and unfolds his facts in a narrative so easy, and yet so correct, that you plainly perceive he wanted only the dismissal of other pursuits to have rivalled Livy or Hume. But soon this advance is interrupted, and he stops to display his powers of description, when the boldness of his design is only matched by the brilliancy of his coloring. He then skirmishes, for a space, and puts in motion all the lighter arms of wit; sometimes not unmingled with drollery, sometimes bordering upon farce. His main battery is now opened, and a tempest bursts forth of every weapon of attack- - invective, abuse, irony, sarcasm, simile drawn out to allegory, allusion, quotation, fable, parable, anathema." — Lord Brougham.

Fox.

Rt. Hon. Charles James Fox, 1749-1806, was probably the most brilliant parliamentary debater that England has ever produced.

Fox was of honorable birth, being second son to Lord Holland. He was educated at Eton and Oxford, and in both places distinguished himself by the accuracy of his classical scholarship. He also became proficient in modern languages, and at different times visited the continent, where he acquired the love for gaming, which was the greatest blot upon his life. He entered Parliament at the age of twenty, and devoted himself exclusively to the cultivation of parliamentary eloquence. "I knew him when he was nineteen; since which time he has risen by slow degrees to be the most brilliant and accomplished debater the world ever saw." ― Burke.

Fox was at first a supporter of the Tory party, but afterwards went over to the Whigs, and became finally their acknowledged leader. He advocated the American cause in the House of Commons. He was associated with Burke in the impeachment of Warren Hastings. The warm friendship between Burke and Fox was interrupted by the French Revolution, Burke being frightened by its excesses, while Fox palliated and defended them. On the ascendency of Pitt and the war against France, Fox was steadfastly in the opposition.

Works.-Fox's Speeches have been published, in 6 vols., 8vo. He also began A History of the Reign of James II.

"The most accomplished debater that ever appeared on the theatre of public affairs." -Brougham.

"He certainly possessed, above all moderns, that union of reason, simplicity, and vehemence which formed the prince of orators. He was the most Demosthenean speaker since Demosthenes."

Mackintosh.

LORD CHESTERFIELD.-Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield, 1694-1773, "the philosopher of flattery and dissimulation," occupied a conspicuous position in society and in affairs of state, and was ambitious of equal distinction in the world of letters.

"He was at the head of the ton, in days when in order to be at the head of the ton it was not sufficient to be dull and supercilious.”—Macaulay. Chesterfield was intimate with Pope, Swift, Voltaire, Montesquieu, etc. Seeking to play the patron to Dr. Johnson, the latter addressed to him that celebrated and rather churlish letter which is so often quoted: Chesterfield's Speeches in Parliament were often of a high order of eloquence. His claim to a permanent place in literature, however, rests almost entirely upon his Letters to his Son. These are graceful and elegant compositions, but are noted for the worldly, selfish, and even at times immoral character of the advice given. "Their publication is much to be regretted by every friend of this accomplished, witty, and eloquent peer."— Chambers.

Junius-Sir Philip Francis.

Sir Philip Francis, 1740-1818, was an accomplished political writer, contemporary with Burke, Fox, and Pitt.

Sir Philip took an active part in the famous trial of Warren Hastings, and was conspicuous as a statesman and a member of Parliament. The conjecture that he was the author of the Letters of Junius, was early broached, and after much discussion was nearly abandoned, notwithstanding the advocacy of such men as Macaulay and Brougham, until the year 1871, when the authorship of the Letters was put almost beyond question by the examination of the handwriting of Junius and of Sir Philip Francis by a professional expert.

Letters of Junius. - The Letters of Junius appeared at intervals in the Public Advertiser, of London, during the years 1769-72. By the boldness of their invective and the masterly style in which they were written, they attracted universal attention, and they exerted a prodi.gious influence upon the public mind. That influence was intensified by the impenetrable secrecy in which the authorship was shrouded. The writer was evidently well acquainted with important state secrets; he was one whose abilities were of the first order, and who could not well live in obscurity; yet of all the men eminent in letters and position, then living, there was not one whom it seemed possible to asso

ciate with the authorship of these Letters. Conjectures pointed to one after another, but some fatal mark was found that seemed to exclude each in succession, until the hunt was almost given up in despair. The public mind had well-nigh settled down in the conclusion that the mystery was insoluble. At length, in 1871, a volume appeared, entitled The Handwriting of Junius Professionally Investigated, by Mr. Charles Chabot, an Expert, which seems to settle the question. Its object is to prove by a minute and exhaustive examination of the Junian manuscripts and of the letters of Sir Philip Francis, that both were written by the same hand. The proof is of the strongest kind, amounting almost to a demonstration, and will go far to put this vexed question

at rest.

As specimens of style, the Letters of Junius are, in their kind, absolutely perfect.

"The classic purity of their language, the exquisite force and perspicuity of their argument, the keen severity of their reproach, the extensive information they evince, their fearless and decisive tone, and above all, their stern and steady attachment to the purest principles of the Constitution, acquired for them, with an almost electric speed, a popularity which no series of letters have since possessed, nor, perhaps, ever will; and, what is of far greater consequence, diffused among the body of the people a clearer knowledge of their constitutional rights than they had ever before attained, and animated them with a more determined spirit to maintain them inviolate. Enveloped in the cloud of a fictitious name, the writer of these philippics, unseen himself, beheld with secret satisfaction the vast influence of his labors, and enjoyed, though, as we shall afterwards observe, not always without apprehension, the universal hunt that was made to detect him in his disguise. He beheld the people extolling him, the Court execrating him, and ministers, and more than ministers, trembling beneath the lash of his invisible hand."-John Mason Good.

William Murray, Lord Mansfield, 1704-1793, is known as one of the most eminent and upright of English judges.

Lord Mansfield was a native of Perth. He was educated at Oxford; rose to be Attorney-General, and finally Lord Chief-Justice of England. His reputation as an orator and statesman was second only to that of Pitt, but to the present generation he is known almost exclusively as one of the purest and most eminent judges that ever sat upon the English bench. All that is left to us of his labors is embodied in a Treatise on the Study of Law (the joint production of Mansfield, Ashburton, and Thurlow), and in the law reports of Cowper, Douglass, and Burrow, containing his decisions. Lord Mansfield may be said to be the author of the English Commercial Law. What, before his time, was a mass of crude beginnings and isolated cases, became, under him, an admirable system of sound principles. During the Junius controversy,

Lord Mansfield was the object of much popular dislike, on the suspicion of being opposed to the liberty of the press.

Sir William Blackstone, 1723-1780, one of the most celebrated of English jurists, is known everywhere by his Commentaries on the Laws of England.

Blackstone's Commentaries is a standard text-book in the legal profession throughout England and America. Though strictly professional, it has given the author a place in letters, because of the excellence of its style. Indeed there is little doubt that much of the celebrity of Blackstone is due, not merely to his legal learning and acumen, but to the purity of his English and the clearness and elegance with which he expresses himself. A good gentleman's law book, clear, but not deep."- Horne Tooke.

RT. HON. WILLIAM PITT, Earl of Chatham, 1708-1778, was the most powerful orator that ever illustrated and ruled the senate of this empire. For nearly half a century he was not merely the arbiter of the destinies of his own country, but the foremost man of all the world." - London Quarterly.

Works.-Chatham took no pains to write out and publish his great speeches, and the reporting art did not then exist as it does now. The specimens of his oratory that survive, therefore, are meagre and unsatisfactory. We have, however, Letters to his Nephew, and the Chatham Papers, containing his official correspondence.

Hume.

David Hume, 1711-1776, is universally known as the author of the most popular History of England yet written, and as a writer of great power on subjects connected with political economy, morals, and religion. In the works last named he is a thorough-going infidel, attacking Christianity on metaphysical grounds chiefly. This class of his writings has been of most baleful tendency.

Hume was a Scotchman, a native of Edinburgh. He abandoned business and the study of the law for literature; was Secretary of the French Embassy, 1763-4; and Under-Secretary of State, 1767-8. His life was always uneventful, and, with the exception of the few years when he served in Government offices, was passed in studious retirement, chiefly in London.