It was as if one went to
I reported to them the

treatment of Ahithophel of old. inquire of the oracle of the Lord.' account I had received, and Burke being satisfied of its authority, we had a consultation on the proper course for Government to follow. Windham set off for London the same night with the result of our deliberations. Burke's advice was very much the same as Sir Charles Middleton's had been on a similar occasion, which Pitt often mentioned as an instance of Sir Charles's promptitude and resolution. 'Never,' said Burke to those about him, 'never succumb to these difficulties. It is a struggle for your existence as a nation; and if you must die, die with the sword in your hand. But I have no fears whatever for the result. There is a salient, living principle of energy in the public mind of England, which only requires proper direction to enable her to withstand this or any other impending danger. Persevere, therefore, till this tyranny be overpast. This ambitious and insolent foe will, if he can, enslave you, his most detested and most dreaded enemies, as he has done others; but he cannot enslave you if you are steadfastly determined to defend yourselves.'

Among his labours while at Bath was his fourth letter on a Regicide Peace; his correspondence with Mr. Windham, the Secretary at War; and with Mr. Arthur Young, the agriculturist, to whom he expounded, in a few sentences, the doctrines which he had long held, and which are now popularly called "Free Trade."

To Mrs. Leadbeater, the day before he quitted Bath, he sent, through another hand, a letter signed tremulously by his own, but breathing more than ever the manliness of Christian resignation: "I feel as I ought to do your constant hereditary kindness to me and mine. What you have heard of my illness is far from exaggerated, I am, thank God, alive, and that is all. Hastening to dissolution, I have to bless Providence that I do not suffer a great deal of pain. I have been at Bath these four months to no purpose, and am therefore to be removed to my own house at Beaconsfield to

morrow, to be nearer to a habitation more permanent, humbly and fearfully hoping that my better part may find a better mansion."

This letter also speaks with the utmost tenderness of Mrs. Burke's gratitude, and congratulates Mrs. Leadbeater on the birth of her son, with remembrance to the representative of her family. The Bishop of Meath said of this touching communication: "The great scene on which Providence gifted him and allotted him to move, was now closing; and no record can now be produced to mark the leading features of his character so strongly as in this letter. It shows him still cherishing the early affections of his heart, among the higher cares which the station he had attained imposed upon him; and after having controlled the destinies of the world, as all now agree he did, by his later writings, turning his last thoughts to the retired, unassuming daughter of the friend of his youth."*

To Beaconsfield Burke returned to die. He was anxious to die at home, to breathe his last surrounded by the objects and recollections endeared to him through life. To some one who probably remonstrated with him on taking so long a journey in his shattered condition, he answered: "It is so far at least on my way to the tomb: I may as well travel it alive as dead."

He lingered for a month longer, during which interval he gave directions as to the disposal of some of his papers: he was strongly desirous that the chief documents relating to the Impeachment of Hastings should be published; adding, when enjoining this wish, the opinion of that important proceeding which he had universally expressed.

Meanwhile, Earl Fitzwilliam had communicated to Mr. Fox that Mr. Burke's end could not be far distant; when Fox sent to Beaconsfield a letter of inquiry, to which Mrs., Burke replied by express, stating by the dying statesman's desire: "It has cost Mr. Burke the most heart-rending pain to obey the stern voice of his duty, in rending asunder a long

* Poems by Mary Leadbeater, p. 323, quoted in Prior's Life.

friendship, but that he deemed this sacrifice necessary; that his principles continue the same; and that in whatever of life may yet remain to him, he conceives that he must live for others, and not for himself. Mr. Burke is convinced that the principles which he has endeavoured to maintain, are necessary to the welfare and dignity of his country; and that these principles can be enforced only by the general persuasion of his sincerity." These are strong words, but they were dic tated by that exalted sense of principle which is indicative of true greatness.

THE EMIGRANT SCHOOL AT PENN.

Towards the close of his life, when his mind was beclouded with domestic sorrow, and he had entirely withdrawn from the busy world to the rural quiet of Beaconsfield, Mr. Burke, after having used every exertion which a philanthropic heart could prompt, and the wisest mind could direct, for stimu lating governments to combat irreligion and anarchy,—he, in a narrower sphere, sought to repair the injuries which they had inflicted on society, in the breaking up of many happy homes, and the dispersion of their happy families.

Early in 1796, Mr. Burke founded a school for the desti tute children of emigrants who had perished by the guillotine, or the firebrands of the Revolution. The house of the late General Haviland, at Penn, about three miles north-west of Beaconsfield, was selected for the school. It had been leased to the Government in 1794, and was intended as a retreat for a few of the houseless French clergy; but this idea was given up. Through the representations of Mr. Burke, Mr. Pitt gave his assent to its being converted into a school-house for the emigrants, with an annual allowance of 6007. Trustees were appointed, and the Abbé Maraine was placed at the head of the establishment, assisted by the learned Abbé Chevallier.

Burke drew up the proposal which was submitted to Government by the Marquis of Buckingham. In this he

stated:

"The circumstance the most unpleasant in the expulsion

of the gentlemen of France, is the situation of their children; particularly the children of those who are now serving in the emigrant corps, or who have been engaged in military service, many of whom have perished while in the British pay.

'They are growing up in poverty and wretchedness, and inevitably mixed with the children of the lowest of the people in the miserable lanes and alleys of London, in which the poverty of their parents obliges them to reside.

"From wretchedness and bad company the transition is easy to desperate vice and wickedness. In this bad society they grow up without any sort of education.

"If Providence should restore them to their country, they will be utterly incapable of filling up their place in society; -no small calamity to all nations, to have France the receptacle of noble or ignoble barbarians.

"If they are to remain in perpetual exile, they are nothing less than trained to Botany Bay or the gallows; a horrible reflection to gentlemen, who will naturally feel for children of unfortunate gentlemen."

Then follow the details of the plan of the School. There was much official delay in settling the business, which made Burke indignantly say: "The rent of an useless house (at Penn) is paid in Windham's office. What! with all these dukes, marquises, cabinet ministers, secretaries-at-state, and secretaries-at-war, cast off lord-lieutenants of Ireland, and their secretaries-cannot this miserable little affair of fifty pounds a-month be done between them-with the aid, too, of all the lady-marchionesses and lady-knights of the shire ?"

The school was opened in April, and nothing could exceed the vigilance and solicitude with which Mr. Burke attended to the institution. He visited it sometimes daily, though at three miles distant from his house; and he then supplied the table of the masters and scholars from his own. Their prizes were distributed annually, when in a Latin oration delivered in the walls Mr. Burke was referred to as the guardian spirit of the institution. He assigned to the youths a blue uniform, and for their hats a white cockade, inscribed, "Vive le Roi;"

those who had lost their fathers had it placed on a bloodcoloured label; those who had lost uncles on a black one. I The Marquis of Buckingham made them a present of a small brass cannon and a pair of colours.

The superintendence of the school served to divert Burke's occasional gloom, and became a source of occupation and interest. He earnestly bequeaths in his Will the institution to the protection of the noble persons joined in the trust. The school lost its founder in the year after its establishment. It was, however, continued to be supported by the Treasury until the restoration of legitimate monarchy in France in 1814, after which the money was remitted until the institution was dissolved in 1820.

Many of the youths educated in this college subsequently filled important stations in various parts of the dominions of France. In 1820, the house at Penn was sold, and pulled down, leaving scarcely a vestige to mark the spot where sena. tors were wont to converse, and wit and eloquence were wont to flow in full force amid the social circle formed by the Burkes.

There remain upon the site two of the largest and loftiest fir-trees in the kingdom, which General Haviland used to call his grenadiers; and these trees may be seen from Harrow-onthe-Hill, from St. Paul's Cathedral, and from the rising ground near Reading.

BURKE'S DESPONDENCY.

In the middle of 1796, Burke's grief appeared incurable. He writes: "Alas! my dear friend, I am not what I was two years ago. Society is too much for my nerves. I sleep ill at night; and am drowsy, and sleep much during the day. Every exertion of spirits which I make for the society I cannot refuse, costs me much, and leaves me more doubly heavy and dejected after it. Such is the person you come to see; or rather, the wreck of what was never a very first-rated vessel. Such as I am, I feel infinitely for the kindness of those old friends who remember me with compassion. As