“Angels, whose guardian care is England, spread Where commerce, science, honour, friendship weep They mourn their patron gone, their friend no more, The character in prose by Edmund Burke, is this: CHARLES MARQUESS OF ROCKINGHAM. "A statesman in whom constancy, fidelity, sincerity, and directness were the sole instruments of his policy. His virtues were his arts. A clear, sound, unadulterated sense, not perplexed with intricate design, nor disturbed by ungoverned passion, gave consisteney, dignity, and effect to all his measures. In opposition he respected the principles of government; in administration he provided for the liberties of the people. He employed his moments of power in realiz ing every thing which he had promised in a popular situation. This was the distinguishing mark of his conduct. After twenty-four years of service to the public, in a critical and trying time, he left no debt of just expectation unsatisfied. 66 By his prudence and patience he brought together a party which it was the great object of his labours to render permanent, not as an instrument of ambition, but as a living depository of principle. "The virtues of his public and private life were not in him of different characters. It was the same feeling, benevolent, liberal mind that, in the internal relations of life, conciliates the unfeigned love of those who see men as they are, which made him an inflexible patriot. He was devoted to the cause of liberty, not because he was haughty and intractable, but because he was beneficent and humane. Let his successors, who from this house behold this monument, reflect that their conduct will make it their glory or their reproach. Let them be persuaded that similarity of manners, not proximity of blood, gives them an interest in this statue. REMEMBER, RESEMBLE, PERSEVERE." BURKE AND ARISTOCRATIC INFLUENCES. Mr. Forster bas some eloquent passages, in his Life of Goldsmith, upon Burke's long attachment to the Whig Lords, and aristocratic influences, which are full of point. "Now (1771) was the time, profiting by the opportunities of George Grenville's death, and the general confusion created by Wilkes and Junius, for Burke to have freed both himself and the Rockinghams; now was the time to have so enlarged the battle-field for both, as to bring in issue something greater than the predominance of Whig families with Whig principles. Yet now, even while his was the solitary voice that invoked retribution for the most infamous crime of nations, the Partition of Poland, he had no thought or wish to throw for a higher stake in politics and government, than a premiership for Rockingham, and an exoteric paymastership for himself. My dear Lord,' he said to Richmond, 'you dissipate your mind with too great a variety of pursuits.' 'My dear Burke,' said the Duke, 'you have more merit than any man in keeping us together.' And with that he was content. He kept them together. He drew himself more and more within the Rockingham ranks; toiled more and more to keep the popular power within a certain magic circle; and, while his genius was at work for the age which was to come, in eloquence as rich and various as its intuition seemed deep and universal, his temper was satisfied that the age in which he lived should be governed exclusively by the Richmonds and the Rockinghams. You people of great families and hereditary trusts and fortunes, the great oaks that shade a country, and perpetuate your benefits from generation to generation, are not like such as I am, mere annual plants that perish with our season, and leave no sort of trace behind us.' And so around that perishable fancy he placed all the supports of his noble imagination; till that which he thought eternal melted from his grasp, and left what he believed its mere transitory graces to survive and endure alone." SECURITY OF THE BRITISH RULE. In the celebrated Bedford Letter, alluding to the professors of the French revolutionary system, Burke exclaims: "Such are their ideas, such their religion, and such their laws. But as to our country and our race, as long as the wellcompacted structure of our Church and State, the sanctuary, the holy of holies of that ancient law, defended by reverence, defended by power, fortress at once and a temple, shall stand inviolate on the brow of the British Sion-as long as the British monarchy, not more limited than fenced by the orders of the state, shall, like the proud Keep of Windsor, rising in the majesty of proportion, and girt with the double belt of its kindred and coeval towers; as long as this awful structure shall oversee and guard the subjected land-so long the mounds and dykes of the low, flat Bedford Level will have nothing to fear from all the pickaxes of all the levellers of France. As long as our sovereign lord the King, and his faithful subjects, the Lords and Commons of this realm-the triple cord which no man can break; the solemn, sworn, constitutional frankpledge of this nation; the firm guarantees of each other's being and each other's rights; the joint and several securities, each in its place and order, for every kind and every quality, of property and of dignity :-as long as these endure, so long the Duke of Bedford is safe: and we are all safe together-the high from blights of envy and the spoliations of rapacity; the low from the iron hand of oppression and the insolent spurn of contempt. Amen! and so be it: and so it will be, Dum domus Æneæ Capitoli immobile saxum." NOISY POLITICIANS. How exquisite is the sarcasm of the following from the * Reflections on the French Revolution: "I have often been astonished, considering that we are divided from you (the French) but by a slender dyke of about twenty-four miles, and that the mutual intercourse between the two countries has lately been very great, to find how little you seem to know of us. I suspect that this is owing to your forming a judgment of this nation from certain publications which do very erroneously, if they do at all, represent the opinions and dispositions generally prevalent in England. The vanity, restlessness, petulance, and spirit of intrigue of several petty cabals, who attempt to hide their total want of consequence in bustle, and noise, and puffing, and mutual quotation of each other, make you imagine that our contemptuous neglect of their abilities. is a general mark of acquiescence in their opinions. No such thing, I assure you. Because half-a-dozen grasshoppers under a fern make the field ring with their importunate chink, whilst thousands of great cattle, reposed beneath the shadow of the British oak, chew the cud and are silent, pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field; that of course they are many in number; or that, after all, they are other than the little, shrivelled, meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome insects of the hour." THE GORDON RIOTS. These disgraceful tumults are memorable beyond most others from the proof which they afford how slender an ability suffices, under certain circumstances, to stir, if not to guide great masses of mankind; and how the best principles and feelings, if perverted, may grow in practice equal to the worst. Bitter was the shame with which the leading statesmen, only a few days afterwards, looked back to this fatal and disgraceful work. They had seen their lives threatened and their property destroyed, at the bidding of a foolish young fanatic, not worthy to unloose the latchet of their shoes. Such dangers might be boldly confronted, such losses might be patiently borne; but how keen to find themselves objects of fierce fury and murderous attack to that people whose welfare, to the best of their judgments, they had ever striven to promote! In such words as these does Burke pour forth the anguish of his soul: "For four nights I kept watch at Lord Rockingham's, or Sir George Savile's, whose houses were garrisoned by a strong body of soldiers, together with numbers of true friends of the first rank, who were willing to share their danger. Savile House, Rockingham House, Devonshire House, to be turned into garrisons! Oh, what times! We have all served the country for several yearssome of us for nearly thirty-with fidelity, labour, and affec tion, and we are obliged to put ourselves under military protection for our houses and our persons."-Letter to R. Shackleton. BURKE'S ANTI-REVOLUTIONARY PRINCIPLES. The energy and pertinacity with which Burke opposed the doctrines of the French Revolution, we have already seen, was variously estimated. Mr. Nicholls, his friend, asserted the great injury which Burke did to his country to have been by preaching the crusade against French principles. "I consider this," says Nicholls, "the great measure of his life, and if I have ever spoken of him with harshness, my language has been the result of my feelings on this subject. The French Revolution, at its very commencement, excited great alarm in the minds of the princes and nobles, especially of German princes. It is well known that George III. did not conceal his opinion on this head. Mr. Burke expressed his disapprobation of the French Revolution at a very early period; his language gradually became more violent; he professed to wish to excite all parties; not only all parties, but every religious sect in the British Empire was called on to exert itself. He did not confine himself to the limits of Great |