ciples of the constitution fairly and justly administered. He was not so much opposed to the struggles of the French for liberty as to their reckless overturning of all established religion and of the monarchical form of government. His conduct in this matter was entirely consistent with his earlier career, only his opposition to radical constitutional changes grew fiercer and fiercer as he advanced in years. Under this interpretation only can a fair and just estimate be placed upon Burke's political career.

Burke's political life may be properly divided into three periods-his life with respect to the affairs of England and her American colonies, his life with respect to England and her government of India, and his life with respect to the French Revolution.

Burke and American Affairs.-It may be said, despite the fact that during this period Burke was simply a member of Parliament, that nevertheless he was the principal factor in the Whig opposition to the policy and the party of the king. This period is marked by three great speeches, which, for breadth of information, clearness and force of argument, and splendor of presentation, have possibly never been equaled. These speeches were the Speech on American Taxation (in 1774), the Speech on Conciliation with the American Colonies (in 1775), and the Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol (in 1777). The last, although not delivered orally, may also be classed as a speech. "It is no exaggeration to say that they (the three pieces') compose the most perfect manual in our literature, or in any literature, for one who approaches the study of public affairs, whether for knowledge or for practice. They are an example without fault of all the qualities which the critic, whether a theorist or an actor, of great political situations should strive by night and by day to pos

sess. If the subject with which they deal were less near than it is to our interests and affections as free citizens, these three performances would still abound in the lessons of an incomparable political method." The truth of this statement can not be discussed here, but the student who follows the study of these three speeches far enough will find out that Morley does not exaggerate.

The further discussion of Burke's "American Period" is left to the student in his study of the Speech on Conciliation and the history leading up to it, for which study provision is made elsewhere in this book.

Burke and the Affairs of India.-After the close of the American War Burke turned his attention to an equally great question-the question of the maladministration of the affairs of India by the East India Company. This period is marked by two tremendous efforts -the Speech, in 1785, On the Nabob of Arcot's Debts, and Burke's speeches, in 1786, at the prosecution of Warren Hastings, the chief administrative officer of the East India Company. The student should consult for a study of this period some extended life of Burke, or Macaulay's Essay on Warren Hastings.

Burke and the French Revolution.-The closing years of the "Indian Period" ushered in the French Revolution. Earlier in life Burke had visited Paris, where he was well received and entertained by the ablest men and women of that city. While in Paris he had seen the beautiful but ill-fated Marie Antoinette. The treatment which the fierce republican patriots of the French Revolution accorded to this woman, whose qualities and whose beauty had touched the sensitive Irishman most deeply, aroused his generous nature to a fiercer heat than it had ever before known; and in 1790 the world, which had always considered Burke an enemy of kings, was electrified by his publication of Reflections on the

Revolution in France, in which he fiercely attacked the revolutionists, and rose to sublime heights of eloquence in defense of the hapless queen. His reputation as a defender of the people against the misgovernment of kings was at once changed into that of a most ardent defender of kings. The Reflections must be read in order to realize the fierceness of his attack upon the revolutionists and their defenders. The common belief, however, that Burke in this affair changed his principles is incorrect. Burke was always a conservative. As has been said before, he was a believer in the reform of government under its existing system and principles, and he had always been radically opposed to changes in the form of governments. Pope's lines may be said to define Burke's position:

"For forms of government let fools contest;

What's best administered is best."

His son

In 1794 Burke bade farewell to Parliament. Richard took his father's place as member from Malton. The king, who, by Burke's attack upon the French Revolutionists, had been changed from an enemy to an ardent friend, determined to make Burke a peer of the realm under the title of Lord Beaconsfield. The patent of nobility was being prepared when Burke's son Richard, who was to succeed him in the title, suddenly died, thus destroying forever Burke's fondest hope of perpetuating his name and greatness through his son. Disappointed and heart-broken, he writes of this time: "The storm has gone over me, and I lie like one of those old oaks which the late hurricane has scattered about me. I am stripped of all my honors; I am torn up by the roots, and lie prostrate on the earth. . . . I am alone. I have none to meet my enemies in the gate. I live in an inverted order. They who ought to have suc

ceeded me have gone before me. They who should have been to me as posterity are in the place of ancestors."

Burke accepted in lieu of the title a pension of twenty-five hundred pounds a year. He who had once fiercely opposed the granting of pensions to favorites was now bitterly attacked in turn. He answered his enemies in his Letter to a Noble Lord, in which he justified his acceptance of a pension.

In 1796, as his life drew to a close, he rose to one more mighty effort. Pitt, then Prime Minister, had determined upon a peace with France, England's hereditary enemy. At the very mention of peace Burke came to the front with Letters on a Regicide Peace with his old-time eloquence and power. This was his last great effort. He died on the 9th of July, 1797, at the age of about sixty-eight years, preserving his faculties to the end. His last thoughts could hardly have been pleasant ones, for, in addition to his personal disappointments, he passed away just at a moment when his beloved England was in the midst of a mighty crisis.

"With magnanimous tenderness, Fox proposed that he should be buried among the great dead in Westminster Abbey; but Burke had left strict injunctions that his funeral should be private, and he was laid in the little church at Beaconsfield.”

Of his family, no descendants remain except those descended from his sister.

BURKE'S PRIVATE LIFE

His Friends.-Among Burke's friends should be mentioned his old teacher's son, Richard Shackleton, a grave, pure gentleman, whom Burke loved most sincerely. They kept up a constant correspondence, and in later life Richard visited Burke at Beaconsfield.

There we find the pious Quaker kneeling alone in his chamber praying that a divine hand might guide his great friend in his mighty enterprises.

Another friend was William Burke, who was of no blood relation to Edmund, but who was his almost constant companion during the nine years from 1750 to 1759. Their friendship lasted to the end.

Another was the Marquis of Rockingham. Burke's appreciation of this noble friend is shown in his tribute to him in his Speech on American Taxation.

Another was Charles James Fox, in his earlier days his political opponent, but later his firm personal and political friend. The friendship of the two high souls unfortunately came to an end from an offense which Burke conceived Fox had given him by quoting as refutation of something Burke had said on the floor of the House a sentence from Burke's Speech on Conciliation. Burke's pride was so deeply wounded that he declared their friendship at an end. Fox explained, with tears in his eyes, that he meant no offense, and begged for a renewal of their friendship; but Burke had been too deeply wounded, and he ever after refused a reconciliation.

His happiest associations, outside his family, were among his friends at the famous "Literary Club," where he spent many delightful hours with Doctor Johnson, David Garrick, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Oliver Goldsmith, and others, whose names are too familiar to need discussion here.

In his friendships Burke was noble, manly, and generous, with the exception of his treatment of Fox, as related above, and a few other cases where trouble and grief had made him irritable in his later years.

Burke's Financial Affairs.-In his financial affairs Burke was no exception to the rule that most prominent