blance to those of his uncle Richard, and his complexion florid. A picture of him by Sir Joshua Reynolds is an admirable likeness," as exact," said a literary lady, a friend of the family, who saw it at the painter's before it was sent home," as the reflection of a mirror." From this portrait his father, soon after his death, caused a print to be engraved, which preserves much of the spirit of the original. Underneath it, after his name, age, and the date of his death, are the following lines, altered in a slight degree from Dryden's elegiac poem of Eleonora "As precious gums are not for common fire, Adding to these, as at once characteristic of his grief, and his pride, "O dolor atque decus." The following character of him from the pen of Dr. Walker King, the present Bishop of Rochester, his intimate friend from youth, appeared in the newspapers a few days afterward. "Died on Saturday last, at Cromwell House, aged 36, Richard Burke, Esq. MP. for the Borough of Malton, and the only son of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke. "The irreparable loss which his country, his friends and relations have sustained by this event, is known best to those who knew him best. "His talents, whether for business or speculation, were not exceeded by any which the present or perhaps any former age could boast. could boast. In that share, unfortunately small, which fell to his lot in public affairs, the superior abilities which he manifested were acknowledged by the first characters in public life. Perhaps it was owing to their magnitude and solidity, disproportioned to the currency of the times, that they remained without farther employment.* "The variety and extent of his erudition was great but what distinguished him in literature was the justness, refinement, and accuracy of his taste. "In society his manners were elegant; and the best judges both at home and abroad, thought him one of the best bred men of the age. He was, at the same time, rigidly and severely sincere. He was of moderate stature, but of a beautiful countenance, and an elegant and graceful figure: He wanted no accomplishment of body or mind. "In the discharge of all the duties of friendship, and in acts of charity and benevolence, his exertions This was the opinion of many of Mr. Burke's friends, rela tive to the major part of the Ministry, arising no doubt from the obvious jealousy which Mr. Pitt occasionally displayed to having men in the Cabinet with him, whose talents might interfere either in the public or in the royal opinion, with his own. Mr. Burke himself also conceived there was a disinclination to bring forward his son into public life. In the letter to William Elliot, Esq. (1795) he says: "Had it pleased Providence to have spared him for the trying situations that seem to be coming on, notwithstanding that he was sometimes a little dispirited by the disposition which we thought shown to depress him and set him aside; yet he was always buoyed up again; and on one or two occasions, he discovered what might be expected from the vigour and elevation of his mind, from his unconquerable fortitude, and from the extent of his resources for every purpose of speculation and of action." were without bounds: they were often secretalways, like all his other virtues, unostentatious. He had no expences which related to himself; what he wanted from the narrowness of his means, was made up from the abundance of his heart and mind; and the writer of this, who knew him long and intimately, and was himself under the most important obligations to him, could tell how many deserving objects he assisted, and some of whom he snatched from ruin by his wise counsel and indefatigable exertions. He never gave up a pursuit of this kind whilst it was possible to continue it. "But it was in the dearer relations of nature that his mind, in which every thing was beautiful and in order, shone with all its lustre. To his father and mother his affection and assiduity were such as passed all description, and all examples that the writer of this has ever seen: here every thing of self was annihilated; here he was as perfect as human nature can admit. At home and to his family, he was indeed all in all. He lived in and for his parents, and he expired in their arms. "A sincerely afflicted mind seeks a momentary consolation in drawing this imperfect sketch of his ever to be honoured and lamented friend. "Gray's Inn, Aug. 3, 1794. " W. K." CHAPTER V. Correspondence with William Smith, Esq. (of Ireland) on the Roman Catholic Question.-Second Letter to Sir Hercules Langrishe, on the same subject.-Letter to William Elliot, Esq. on the Attack of the Duke of Norfolk, in the House of Lords. Letters to Mrs. Salisbury Haviland.-Letter to Lord Auckland, with Remarks on his Pamphlet.-Letter to William Smith, Esq.-Thoughts and Details on Scarcity.-Anecdotes. -Grant of a Pension.-Letter to a Noble Lord in Reply to an Attack of the Duke of Bedford, and the Earl of Lauderdale in the House of Lords. FOR some months after the afflicting loss he had experienced, the mind of Mr. Burke was too seriously hurt by it to take so active an interest as he had hitherto done in most questions connected with public affairs; nor did his friends deem it decorous to intrude upon the almost sacred privacies of a grief so profound by solicitations for his opinion. But as he became more composed, a return to the consideration of such matters, which had long been a species of daily aliment to him, was eagerly desired by them as serving to prevent the continual intrusion of more melancholy thoughts. His communications with Ministry, however, from this time forward in a great degree ceased with the life of his son, his influence, whatever it was, being exerted through the channel of the press, and therefore wholly public. The question of Roman Catholic Emancipation occupied then, as it still continues to do, a large share of the attention of the statesmen of England and Ireland. In the latter country, as being chiefly concerned in the result, it was, of course, warmly debated; the late concessions there, the continued exertions of Mr. Grattan, and the inflammatory state of politics altogether, producing in many a conviction of its necessity; in others as strong an aversion to any further indulgence. An appeal to Mr. Burke from several of his friends in Dublin, whose opinions were either not fully formed, or who wished their doubts on the matter entirely resolved, was therefore made. Among the number was his young friend, Mr. Smith. He had now secured a seat in the legislature of his country, and being further placed in the not uncommon situation in Ireland of having one parent of the Protestant and the other of the Roman Catholic faith, and brought up a Protestant himself, he considered it no less desirable than just, to gain from such a man all the additional light he could throw upon the subject, in order to be himself enabled to act wisely and conscientiously towards his religion, towards his parent as one of the obnoxious persuasion, and towards his country. His letter on this occasion is useful to advert to for its own sake, as well as for the sake of the answer it produced. "I am about to make a very usual return for great kindness, by imposing a further tax on him from whom I have received it. The funds, however, on which I draw, whatever modesty or prudence may induce you to allege, are universally known to be abundant. Besides, what I ask for is |