and distress-I will call to mind this accusation, and be comforted."

He had much of the weight and respectability of the city in his favour; but the million were against him. He therefore declined, took his leave briefly but expressively in person and not by letter-for, as in the face of day he had accepted their trust, so in the face of day he accepted their dismission; conscious that he had nothing to be ashamed of. The parting was affecting-increased by the sudden death of one of the candidates; "showing," said Burke, with true pathos, "what shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue." He then bowed gracefully to the sheriffs, the other candidates, and to the multitude, and quitted the hustings.

Charles Fox, writing to Burke soon after, and while busy in his own contest for Westminster, says: "Indeed, my dear Burke, all your candour, and reverse of selfishness, (for I know no word to express it,) is to be in patience with that rascally city."

LORD GEORGE GORDON'S RIOTS.

Mr. Burke being a most powerful advocate of the Roman Catholic claims, in 1780, the fanatic feeling ran strongly against him. His house in Charles-street, St. James's, was threatened; he was reviled as a Jesuit in disguise, nicknamed "Neddy St. Omer," and caricatured as a monk stirring the fires of Smithfield. Nevertheless, caring little personally, he mixed with a party of the mob unharmed, and his wife being safely lodged, he spent great part of the day in the street with the rioters, the greater part of whom he found dissolute and unruly, rather than malignant and fanatical.

On the 6th of June, he, with several Members of both Houses of Parliament, was stopped on his way on foot to the House of Commons, and was surrounded by some of the petitioners, who remonstrated with him for supporting the Roman Catholic Bill.

This Mr. Burke admitted he had

done, thinking himself justified: he said he understood he was a marked man, on whom the petitioners meant to wreak their vengeance; therefore he walked out singly amongst them, conscious of having done nothing that deserved their censure in the slightest degree, having always been an advocate for the people, and meaning to continue so. By this means he got rid of the troublesome petitioners.

He had been apprised the previous day that his house was to be destroyed.. Mrs. Burke, his papers, and a few valuables, were immediately conveyed to the house of Gen. Burgoyne; the furniture being removed under the protection of a party of soldiers, sent by the authorities without application; and Burke then dismissed the guard, and spent his nights with other volunteer friends of rank in guarding Lord Rockingham's and Sir George Savile's houses. Next day, Burke forced his way into the House of Commons, and burning with indignation and remonstrance, spoke so as to affect his hearers most deeply; remarking that freedom of debate in the Commons of England had arrived at a new era, when a bludgeoned mob in the street aimed to destroy that freedom, while soldiers with fixed bayonets were employed at the doors to protect it.

When many of the unhappy rioters had been convicted, and sentenced to death, Burke, by letters and reflections, pressed upon the law authorities and ministers, besought them to submit his opinions to His Majesty and Lord North-that public justice ought to be satisfied with the smallest possible number of victims. In Parliament, however, he condemned the instigators of the tumults among the higher classes: "they," he said, "and not the ignorant and misled multitude, ought to be hanged;" and seeing some of the " Association" in the lobby of the House, he exclaimed, in their hearing, "I am astonished that those men can have the audacity still to nose Parliament."

EFFECT OF CONFIDENCE.

Mr. Burke often lamented that his wisest measures were spoilt by the counteraction of his adversaries and the injudi

cious interference of his friends. After the Riots of 1780, he took under protection, Dr. Hay, a Catholic prelate from Scotland, whose house and library had been destroyed by the Scottish rioters. In consequence of Mr. Burke's exertions, a considerable recompense for his losses was voted to the Doctor by Parliament. On Mr. Burke's leaving the House, Mr. Butler walked up to him to thank him for his exertions. "Your friend," he said, "is almost the only person who has put unlimited confidence and trust in me; ask him how he has succeeded."

BURKE AND "ELOCUTION WALKER."

When a Bill had passed the Commons, in 1780, to prevent Roman Catholics from giving scholastic instruction to Protestants, "Elocution Walker," author of the Pronouncing Dictionary, (and who had given lessons to young Burke,) and had lately become a Roman Catholic, appealed to the statesman, one day, in the neighbourhood of the House of Commons. Mr. Burke, with the view of serving the interests of literature, thus introduced Walker to a nobleman accidentally passing: "Here, my Lord Berkeley, is Mr. Walker, whom not to know, by name at least, would argue want of knowledge of the harmonies, cadences, and proprieties of our language. Against this gentleman and others, we are going, my Lord, upon a poor, ungrounded prejudice of the refuse of the mob of London, to commit an act of gross injustice; and for what? For crimes moral or political? No, my Lord, but because we differ in the meaning affixed to a single word," pronouncing it emphatically,-" transubstantiation."

HORACE WALPOLE AND BURKE.

Walpole, who could not "bear a rival near the throne". of his conceit, has the following notes, in his Letters on Burke.

To Mr. George Montagu, July 22, 1761, he says: "I dined with your Secretary (Single-speech Hamilton) yester

day; there were Garrick and a young Mr. Burke, who wrote a book in the style of Lord Bolingbroke, which was much admired. He is a sensible man, but has not worn off his authorism yet, and thinks there is nothing so charming as writers, and to be one. He will know better one of these days."

Of his speech against the Repeal of the Marriage Act, in 1772: "Burke made a long and fine oration against the motion. He spoke with a choice and variety of language, a profusion of metaphors, and yet with a correctness of diction, that were surprising. His fault was copiousness above measure."

Feb. 12, 1780: "Everybody is full of Mr. Burke's yesterday's speech, which I only mention as parent of a mot of George Selwyn. Lord George Gordon, single, divided the House, and Selwyn set him down afterwards at White's, where he said, 'I have brought the whole Opposition in my coach; and I hope one coach will always hold them, if they mean to take away the Board of Works,'" of which Selwyn was paymaster.

Walpole was, however, grateful to Burke on one occasion. In his "Memoir respecting his Income," he says: "I have never yet thanked Mr. Burke for the overflowing pleasure he gave my heart, when, on moving his bill, he paid that just compliment to the virtues of my honest, excellent father. This acknowledgment, I hope he will accept as a proof that, though silent, I was not insensible to the obligation. Just praise out of his mouth is an epitaph of sterling value, and standing in his printed speech on that occasion, will enjoy an immortality which happens to few epitaphs."

CORRECTING A QUANTITY.

In his notice of motion on Economical Reform, in Parliament, Dec. 15, 1780, while enforcing the necessity of frugality, and recommending to the Minister the apothegm of Cicero, magnum vectigal est parsimonia, he made a false quantity, rendering the second word vectigal. Lord North, in an

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undertone, corrected the error, when Burke, with his usual dexterity, turned his own mistake to account. The Noble Lord," said he, "hints that I have erred in the quantity of a principal word in my quotation; I rejoice at it; because it gives me an opportunity of repeating the inestimable adage," -and with increased energy he thundered forth “magnum vect-i-gal est parsimonia."

66 SHEARING THE WOLF."

This figure, in allusion to the right of taxing America which the Minister still insisted upon, was used by Mr. Burke, in support of the amendment to the Address, Nov. 27, 1781. After descanting on our repeated losses and defeats, he exposed the folly of claiming rights which could not be enforced-rights that have cost Britain thirteen provinces, four islands, a hundred thousand men, and more than seventy millions of money! Oh miserable and infatuated ministers! miserable and undone country! not to know that right signifies nothing without might; that the claim without the power of enforcing it was nugatory and idle in the copyhold of rival states or of immense bodies of people. What! shear a wolf? Yes. But will he comply? Have you considered the trouble? How will you get this wool? Oh! I have considered nothing, and I will consider nothing but my right; a wolf is an animal that has wool; all animals that have wool are to be shorn, and therefore I will shear the wolf. This was just the kind of reasoning urged by the minister, and this the counsel he has given.

MR. BURKE PAYMASTER-GENERAL.

In 1782, when the Rockingham party again came into power, Burke obtained a seat in the Privy Council, and the Paymaster-Generalship of the Forces. He immediately brought in a Bill for a reform of the office, surrendering to the public the interest and other advantages accruing from the enormous sum of 1,000,000l., which was not unfre quently the amount of the Paymaster's balance in hand. As