Imagens da página
PDF
ePub
[ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

OF

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

EDMUND BURKE;

ᎾᎡ,

AN IMPARTIAL REVIEW

OF

HIS PRIVATE LIFE, HIS PUBLIC CONDUCT,

HIS SPEECHES IN PARLIAMENT,

AND THE DIFFERENT PRODUCTIONS OF HIS PEN,

WHETHER POLITICAL OR LITERARY.

INTERSPERSED WITH.

A VARIETY OF CURIOUS ANECDOTES,

AND

EXTRACTS FROM HIS SECRET CORRESPONDENCE

WITH

SOME OF THE MOST DISTINGUISHED CHARACTERS IN EUROPE.

BY CHARLES M'CORMICK, LL. B.

THE SECOND EDITION.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR LEE AND HURST, NO. 32, PATERNOSTER-ROW,

1798

BOD SR

2-Jul.1870

OXFORD

A SKETCH of the following work was written about two years ago for a Magazine. The general notice, which it then excited, would not have induced the author to fill up the outline, or to engage in an undertaking of such magnitude, had he not been since supplied with some materials of too much importance to be withheld from the people of England, and of too much delicacy to be safely laid before them in any other form than that of biographical or historical illustrations. They throw great light on the secret intrigues of the British cabinet during the most eventful period of our history.

It would have been easy to give the work a higher finishing in a little more time; but the praise of masterly execution appeared of little consequence, when compared with the advantages which the country was likely to derive from the immediate diffusion of such interesting truths. Data tempore prosint.

The early part of Mr. BURKE's life is rapidly passed over, as the events are taken from mere reports, the fidelity of which it was impossible to ascertain without greater trouble than they seemed to deserve; but, from the commencement of his public career, every step has been traced with the utmost care; and every fact has been established upon indisputable authorities.

In reply to the Injunction, which Mrs. BURKE was persuaded by some silly and malicious advisers to solicit, the author of the following Memoirs has only to observe, that the Injunction might have been addressed to Mr. BURKE's ghost with as much propriety as to him. He would be the last man in the world to touch "the widow's mite,"to invade her inheritance either of Mr. BURKE's literary property, or dearly earned pensions: but he does not conceive that the right of publishing remarks on the speeches and writings of others expired with Mr. BURKE; and he certainly has not carried that liberty to a greater extent than was exercised by the right honourable gentleman during his whole life.

« AnteriorContinuar »