eloquence. He diligently collected it from the wise of all times; but what he had so obtained, he enriched from the vast treasury of his own observation; and his intellect, active, vigorous, comprehensive, trained in the discipline of true philosophy to whatever subject he applied it penetrated at once through the surface into the essential forms of things.

"With a fancy singularly vivid, he, least of all men in his time, indulged in splendid theories. With more ample materials of every kind than any of his cotemporaries, he was the least in his own skill to innovate. A statesman of the most enlarged views,-in all his policy he was strictly practical, and in his practice he always regarded with holy reverence the institutions and manners derived from our ancestors. It seemed as if he had been endowed with such transcendent powers, and informed with such extensive knowledge, only to bear the more striking testimony, in these days of rash presumption, how much the greatest mind is singly inferior to the accumulated efforts of innumerable minds in the long flow of centuries.

His private conversation had the same tincture with his public eloquence. He sometimes adorned and dignified it with philosophy, but he never lost the charm of natural ease. There was no subject so trivial which he did not transiently illuminate with the brilliancy of his imagination. In writing, in speaking, in the senate, or round the table, it was easy to trace the operations of the same genius.

"To the Protestant religion, as by law established, he was attached from sincere conviction; nor was his a barren belief without influence of his moral conduct. He was rigid in the system of duties by which he regulated his own actions; liberal in construing those of all other men; warm but placable; resenting more the offences committed against those who were dear to him than against himself; vehement and indignant only where he thought public justice insulted; compassionate to private distress; lenient even to suffering guilt. As a friend, he was perhaps too partial to those whom he esteemed; over-rating every little merit, overlooking all their defects; indefatigable in serving them; straining in their favour whatever influence he possessed; and for their sakes more than his own, regretting that during so long a political life he had so seldom bore any share in power; which he considered only as an instrument of more diffusive good. In his domestic relations he was worthy (and more than worthy he could not be) of the eminent felicity which for many years he enjoyed; an husband of exemplary tenderness and fidelity; a father fond to excess; the most affectionate of brothers; the kindest master; and on his part, he has been often heard to declare, that in the most anxious moments of his public life, every care vanished when he entered his own roof.

"One who long and intimately knew him, to divert his own sorrow, has paid this very inadequate tribute to his memory. Nothing which relates to such a man can be uninteresting or uninstructive to the public, to whom he truly belonged. Few, indeed, whom the Divine goodness has largely gifted, are capable of profiting by the imitation of his genius and learning; but all mankind may grow better by the study of his virtues."

The reader will be gratified by the insertion of Dr Parr's celebrated sketch of Burke, from his 'Preface to Bellendenus: "There is, I am aware, a certain wordy speaker, who, for his readiness, and fluency,

and showy exercitations, has obtained among the multitude the character of a consunimate orator. Let the admirers of this man gnash their teeth with vexation while I speak, what my soul dictates, of the eloquence of Burke,-of Burke, by whose sweetness Athens herself would have been soothed, with whose amplitude and exuberance she would have been enraptured, and on whose lips that prolific mother of genius and science would have adored, confessed, the goddess of persuasion.

"There were some among the Romans who esteemed a certain terseness and exility of style and sentiment, provided it were laboured, and polished, and elegant, as truly Attic; and held the more full, and grand, and commanding, and magnificent species of oratory in the highest contempt. Vain of their taste and their sagacity, and insensible to the gradations, the transitions, and the variety of the Athenian style, such men had the audacity to condemn the harangues of Cicero himself, as tumid, oriental, and redundant. Men have not been wanting with us, who have croaked the same dull note, and repeated the same lifeless criticism of the eloquence of Burke. But let these vain pretenders to Attic taste, without the robustness of mind to tolerate its beauties, learn to think more highly of our illustrious orator; let them know, that to imitate Burke is to speak Athenian-like and well; and that even to have attained a relish for his charms is greatly to have advanced in literature. Let me add, and it is much to the purpose, that Burke, on whatever topic he touches in the excursive range of his allusions, appears a master of the subject; and to have acquired a deep and thorough insight into whatever is excellent in elegant art or solid science. Critics there are who wish to separate eloquence from literature, and to ascribe the powers of the orator to a certain natural talent improved by habit. While we congratulate these original and unlettered speakers, let us admire in Burke a mind by nature formed for eloquence, and inpregnated with every subsidiary aid, by sedulous and unwearied application. He applied himself to classic literature, because he knew that from that literature oratory was furnished with its choicest ornaments, and because he felt that it silently infused the habit of speaking even English well. Demosthenes is said to have been a reader, and even an auditor of Plato; and Cicero is confirmed in this opinion by the choice and grandeur of his style. How deeply read is Burke; what stores he has accumulated in his capacious memory from the orators and poets, is forcibly felt by every man of letters in that strong tincture of literature which pervades, with essential fragrance, all his compositions. His superior genius, like that of Phidias, was no sooner exhibited than felt; but observing how much the brightest talents have been obscured by negligence, he never relaxed his ardent assiduity a moment, nor suffered the extent of his attainments to damp his appetite for more.

"Few have the opportunity or the power of forming a competent opinion of a speech delivered; but of Burke's eloquence there are specimens of which every one may judge. Look at what he has published, the charm equally of the world at large and of the ablest critics. Who is there among men of eloquence or learning more profoundly versed in every branch of science? Who is there that has cultivated philosophy, the parent of all that is illustrious in literature or exploit, with more felicitous success? Who is there that can transfer so happily the result of laborious and intricate research, to the most familiar and popu

lar topics? Who is there that possesses so extensive yet so accurate an acquaintance with every transaction, recent or remote? Who is there that can deviate from his subject, for the purposes of delight, with such engaging ease, and insensibly conduct his readers from the severity of reasoning to the festivity of wit? Who is there that can melt them, if the occasion requires, with such resistless power to grief and pity? Who is there that combines the charm of inimitable grace and urbanity with such magnificent and boundless expansion? He that can do this, I affirm it again and again, has Attic powers, and speaks a language which, while it soothes the multitude by its sweetness, by its correctness and pregnancy will captivate the judgment of the severest critic.

"Many men, of more talent than erudition, have fancied that they could speak better than they could write; and flattered themselves with a reputation for eloquence which never stood the test of severe and critical examination. Many a speech has been received with infinite applause in the delivery, which, when handed about in print, has appeared poor, languid, and lifeless. Lord Chatham was a great man, a most animated and terrific orator, and eminently endued with the first qualifications of a great statesman; yet as a speaker, his fame, doubtless from the witchery of his manner, was greater than his power. Like Cromwell, he had that perspicacity of eye which pried into the inmost recesses of the soul, and detected all the thoughts and impressions, and hopes and fears, of his auditors. He had that too which Cromwell had not; for Cromwell, we are told, was slow in the conception of his ideas when he spoke, and diffuse and perplexed in the delivery. But in Chatham, when he rose to speak, there was a fervour and vehemence of imagination, a headlong torrent of words, and power of sound, which deafened, and stunned, and confounded his opponents. In the man himself, I well remember, there was a native dignity of form, which commanded reverence and faith; and by filling his hearers with holy awe, predisposed them to his purpose. With powers little calculated to instruct or to delight, there was a vehemence of contention, an awakening energy of manner, an impassioned ardour, a confident and boastful exultation, which victory only rendered more ferocious and ungovernable. He often rose to dignity in the donation of applause, still oftener blazed to fierceness in the fulmination of invectives; and sometimes, in the violence of altercation, stung with a poignancy of wit peculiarly his own. But take away these showy appendages of eloquence, which are included almost in the very name of Chatham; take away that which in the judgment of Demosthenes was the first, the second, the third qualification of an orator; and which, in Chatham, were displayed as they prevailed in so astonishing a measure, and with such felicity of success; take away the imposing dignity of his presence, the strength and grandeur of his voice, the elaborate vehemence of his gesticulation, worked up often to extravagance, and adapted rather to the drama than the senate; take these away, and in those very speeches which were extolled by his auditors as transcending far all praise, you will find nothing scarcely which forcibly strikes or sweetly soothes the ear; nothing which by its strength or clearness captivates the judgment; nothing which the intelligent reader in a cool and temperate hour will highly approve; or having once read, will eagerly demand again..

"Such, I confess, was the giant scale of Chatham's mind, that he might well claim, and would assuredly fill with honour, the highest station to which a subject can aspire. To his other original and illustrious qualities was added that felicity of fortune which fills up the measure of all pre-eminent greatness. In his character as minister, such was the greatness and elevation of his spirit, that, like Scipio, he could revive expiring ardour, and fill men with a confidence of expectation which no mortal promises, nor the moral course of nature, ever did, or under any other auspices, ever ought to inspire. Those, however, who consider Chatham not as a first-rate orator, but as another Demosthenes, are greatly deceived. In Demosthenes, with a dignity which scarcely has been equalled, was combined a sagacity and coolness which can never be surpassed. He who aspires only to be rapid, vehement, and sonorous, without descending to plain narrative, cool statement, and close argument, sacrifices reason to passion, and touches on the precincts of a frantic eloquence. It was the lot of Chatham to owe whatever he possessed to a genius exercised by practice alone. The consequence was natural. With infinite fluency and animation he insured the fate of Galba, and while he breathed consuming fire as a speaker, all the force and all the blaze of his eloquence was extinguished upon paper. Far different is Burke. To wing his flight to the sublime of eloquence he has called in the labours of the closet. Burke would not that the fame of his powers should be circumscribed within the same poor limits that bound life; nor has he feared, most certainly he has not shunned, that solemn sentence which posterity, who 'extenuate nothing, nor set down aught in malice,' will hereafter pronounce upon his genius.

"There are many, I know, who, though well-convinced that the pen is the instructor of the tongue, and perfectly able to treat any subject upon paper with infinite correctness and art, yet, when drawn from the shade of studious retirement into action, are not only incapable of delivering with clearness what they have very justly conceived, but exhibit the spectacle of absolute helplessness and fatuity. But Burke, though fully satisfied that nothing contributes more to good speaking than good writing, is equally prepared for both. The same power of mind, the same divine and inextinguishable ardour which fires him in the senate, animates him in the solitude of composition; nor need he blush to say of his speeches what Thucydides has affirmed of his elaborate history, I give it to the public as an everlasting possession, and not as a contentious instrument of temporary applause.'

"There is an unwillingness in the world to show that the same man has excelled in various pursuits; yet Burke's compositions, diversified as they are in their nature, yet each excelling in its kind, who does not read with instruction and delight? I have hitherto surveyed the merits of the orator; let us now view him as a critic and philosopher.

"Criticism, which others would have been content to study as they found it, Burke has enlarged by his discoveries, illustrated by his multifarious learning, and treated with all the graces of a style most elegant and refined, yet not polished into insipidity by too curious a care. Often has it been lamented that the language of philosophers is usually so crabbed and uncouth as to deter readers of taste from the perusal of their labours. It fell to Burke, by his purity and grace, to purge off

the inveterate rust, and to adapt to the knottiest and the subtlest disquisitions, such a flowing ease, and fertility and lustre of style, as the world has never witnessed. With such illustrious proofs of his own powers, he has at once, by his precepts and his example, instructed others to excel: for whether he luxuriates in speeches replete with the choicest phraseology and happiest periods, or bends his keen and subtle intelligence on critical disquisition, such is the felicity of his labours, that he at once quickens the sagacity of his readers, while he stores their memory and fertilizes their fancy with invigorating and varied information.

"On the morals of a man most conspicuously endued with the more amiable and the severe virtues, I hold it needless to descant. The unspotted innocence, the firm integrity of Burke, want no emblazoning, and if he is accustomed to exact a rigorous account of the moral conduct of others, it is justified in one who shuns not the most inquisitorial scrutiny into his own.

"I know what unsafe and treacherous ground I tread. Objectors, I am aware, are not wanting, who will exclaim that I have lavished praise with too prodigal a hand; that I have been hurried away by my love and admiration of the man; and unblushing malice may insinuate even this that I have studiously praised him for those qualities in which I knew he was deficient. I care not. The tribute I have paid him is little to his deserts; and would to God that this little had come from any one who could have more suitably expanded and adorned it! This, however, I deliberately and steadily affirm-that of all the men who are, or who ever have been eminent for energy and splendour of eloquence, or for skill and grace in composition, there is not one who in genius or erudition, in philanthropy or piety, or in any of the qualities of a wise and good man, surpasses Burke. Such is my opinion of one9 of these prominent and illustrious characters; and it is my wish that it should be considered less as the effusion of my regard, than as the sincere and settled conviction of my judgment."

W. H. Lambton.

BORN A. D. 1764.-DIED A. D. 1797.

THIS young statesman, whose career was cut short by a premature death, was the son of General John Lambton, and Lady Susan Lyon, sister to the earl of Strathmore. He was born on the 15th of November, 1764. His predecessors had frequently represented the county and city of Durham in parliament, and his father had seated himself with considerable popularity for the latter, by asserting the privileges of the freemen in opposition to the usurpations of fictitious votes. The fond affection of a parent, hoping his son might one day hold a seat in the national councils, determined that no advantage of education should be wanting to render him worthy of the important trust. In conformity to this design, Mr Lambton was placed, at the early age of seven years,

Lord North and Mr Fox were the two others to whom, with Mr Burke, this work of Bellendenus was dedicated by Dr Parr.