are no more, it would be affectation to deny that Burke, during the last few years of his life, fell into a state of complete hallucination. When the French Revolution broke out, his mind, already fainting under the weight of incessant labour, could not support the contemplation of an event so unprecedented, so appalling, and threatening results of such frightful magnitude. The change was then first clearly seen; it was aggravated by the death of his son; and it became progressively worse till death closed the scene. His son died in 1794; and Burke's most violent works were written between that period and his own death, in 1797."* POLITICS AT CHURCH. Burke had a strong dislike for what are termed political sermons. In the summer of 1791, while writing his Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs, he was staying with his family at Margate. He attended Divine service at the parish church; and a popular preacher from London, hearing that Burke would be of his congregation, delivered before him a long political sermon, denouncing French Revolutionary sentiments, and laudatory of the contest the Duke of Brunswick was preparing to carry on against France. Nothing could have been more distasteful to the person it was chiefly intended to gratify. Burke manifested an impatience observable by the whole congregation; he several times stood up, and took his hat, as if expecting the discourse to end; at last, he sat down with such marks of dissatisfaction, that the preacher abruptly terminated his homily. "Surely," said he on a similar occasion to the above, "the church is a place where one day's truce may be allowed to the dissensions and animosities of mankind." NEW REFORMERS. In 1790, Mr. Flood submitted to Parliament a motion for Parliamentary Reform, when a jest of Burke threw much * Buckle's History of Civilization, vol. i. ridicule upon the enthusiasts in the cause. A new party of Reformers, he said, had arisen still more pure in their creed than the rest, who deemed annual Parliaments not sufficiently frequent, and quoted in support of their doctrine the latter words of the statute of Edward III., that "a parliament shall be holden every year once, and more often if need be." How to designate these gentlemen from their less orthodox associates he knew not, except indeed the tenets furnished the hint, and they be known as the oftener-if-need-be's. LAWYERS IN PARLIAMENT. In the Session of 1791, during a discussion in the House of Commons upon the impeachment of Hastings, Mr. Erskine remarked that the lawyers were not at home in that house, when Burke said he believed they were not,-"They were birds of a different feather, and only perched in that House on their flight to another-only resting their pinions there for awhile, yet ever fluttering to be gone to the region of coronets; like the Hibernian in the ship, they cared not how soon she foundered, because they were only passengers-their best bower anchor was always cast in the House of Lords." Upon another evening, Erskine complained of the length of the trial, when Burke, after an able defence of the manager, asked, with biting sarcasm," Whether the learned gentleman remembered, that if the trial had continued three, the oppressions had continued for twenty, years? Whether, after all, there were hour-glasses for measuring the grievances of mankind? or whether those whose ideas never travelled beyond a nisi prius cause, were better calculated to ascertain what ought to be the length of an impeachment than a rabbit who breeds six times in a year was to judge of the time proper for the gestation of an elephant ?" MADAME DE GENLIS AT BEACONSFIELD. Among the persons who fled to England, at the breaking out of the French Revolution, was Madame de Genlis, who had been at first its partisan. As a celebrité, Madame, with her suite, took up their abode for a short time at Butler's Court. They had scarcely got settled, when her chamberlain communicated that Madame la Comtesse could not sleep if the smallest portion of light entered her bedchamber. The shutters were fitted afresh, and chinks closed up, in order to exclude the rays of morning-but in vain: thick windowcurtains and bed-curtains were tried, but in vain. At length a carpenter was employed every evening to nail up blankets. against every crevice, and thus the light was effectually shut out the carpenter removing the blankets in the morning. The Countess was not much liked among the friends and visitors at Butler's Court: her weak point was to do, or be thought to do, everything; in short to be an universal genius in mind and mechanical power; but her conceit led her into untruth. Sir Joshua Reynolds was then on a visit to Burke, and had his attention attracted by a curious ring which the Countess wore : he asked by what good fortune she had acquired it, and received for answer that it was executed by herself. This was too much for truth-loving Reynolds: he stared, but made no reply. "I have done with her," said he, the first time he was alone with Mr. Burke afterwards-"to have the assurance to tell me such a tale! Why, my dear Sir, it is an antique; no living artist in Europe can equal it." FRENCH PRINCIPLES.-PITT AND BURKE. Lord Sidmouth, while Speaker and close friend of Pitt, was dining with him at Beaconsfield, in September, 1791, when Burke was earnestly representing the danger which threatened this country from the contagion of French principles. Pitt said, "Never fear, Mr. Burke, depend on it we shall go on as we are till the day of judgment." "Very likely, Sir," replied Mr. Burke; "it is the day of no judgment that I am afraid of." GOOD ADVICE. When the Portland party joined the Ministry, Mr. Pitt asked several of the principal members to dine, among whom was Burke. They rose from table, Lord Sidmouth, who was present, said, "after much desponding conversation on the gloomy aspect of public affairs," when Mr. Burke, in an encouraging tone, addressed to them the following line from Virgil, as his parting advice: "Durate, et vosmet rebus, servate secundis."-Æneid, lib. i. Live and reserve yourselves for better fate."-Dryden. DEATH OF SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. In the spring of 1792, (23rd February,) died Burke's amiable and excellent friend of thirty-five years' standingSir Joshua Reynolds-bequeathing him for the trouble of executorship, 20007., and also cancelling a bond for the same amount, lent on a former occasion. Their intimacy-the extent of a generation-had been close and uninterrupted— their feelings and sentiments consonant-and in this protracted friendship they had conjointly missed many a brilliant ornament from the gay circle that was wont to assemble round Reynolds's hospitable board in Leicester-square. It was long said that the President was indebted to Burke for his celebrated Lectures on Painting; and, for the nonce, he is said to have paid 40007., the sum bequeathed by Reynolds. The story is, however, now discredited; it is more probable that Burke, who was well acquainted with the subject, and moreover, ready to suggest to his friend, may have corrected. the lectures. "What the illustrious Scipio was to Lelius," says Mr. Malone, "the all-knowing and all-accomplished Burke was to Reynolds." Barry acknowledges assistance of this kind he writes from Rome: "it is impossible to describe to you what an advantage I had in the acquaintance of Mr. Burke: it was a preparative, and facilitated my relish for the beautiful things of the arts here." : Mr. Burke first suggested to Sir Joshua the well-known picture of Count Ugolino and his sons, from Dante, which was purchased for 400 guineas. In return, Burke entertained so favourable an opinion of the painter's judgment and discrimination as a philosopher, that he submitted to him in manuscript, the Reflections on the French Revolution. A few hours after Reynolds's death, Burke wrote for the newspapers, his character of him-"as fine a portrait as Reynolds ever painted." "It is," says Seward, "the eulogium of Parrhasius pronounced by Pericles-it is the eulogium of the greatest painter by the most consummate orator of his time." Sir Joshua Reynolds (says Burke,) was on very many accounts one of the most memorable men of his time. He was the first Englishman who added the praise of the elegant arts to the other glories of his country. In taste, in grace, in facility, in happy invention, in the richness and harmony of colouring, he was equal to the greatest inventors of the renowned ages. "He possessed the theory as perfectly as the practice of his art. To be such a painter he was a profound and penetrating philosopher. His talents of every kind, powerful from nature, and not merely cultivated by letters, his social virtues in all the relations and all the habitudes of life, rendered him the centre of a very great and unparalleled variety of agreeable societies, which will be dissipated by his death. He had too much merit not to excite some jealousy, too much innocence to provoke any enmity. The loss of no man of his time can be felt with more sincere general and unmixed sorrow." Mr. Burke superintended the ceremonial of the funeral: his remains rest in the crypt of St. Paul's Cathedral—“ the Painter's Corner," as it is called; and in the cathedral nave is a portrait statue of England's finest painter, Reynolds, by her best sculptor-Flaxman. At the close of the day of the funeral, Mr. Burke attempted to return thanks, in the name of the family, to the Members of the Academy for the attention shown to the remains of |