The biographical notices are brief, but comprise much information; and of the translation we can speak in terms of unqualified commendation; in short, these volumes should be found on the shelves of all lovers of the light, but nevertheless, foundation order of literary architecture. The engravings are of a mixed character, several of them happily conceived, and others not so well drawn; but all prettily finished, in as far as the burin is concerned.-Lond. Lit. Gaz.

SELECTED FOR THE MUSEUM.

Memoir of the Life and Character of the Right Hon. Edmund Burke, with Specimens of his Poetry and Letters, and an Estimate of his Genius and Talents, compared with those of his great Contemporaries. By James Prior, Esq. London: Baldwin and Co. 1824.

MR. PRIOR's book contains many interesting particulars respecting Burke, not given by his other biographers; it exhibits much just sentiment and good feeling, and it displays sufficient evidence that much careful inquiry has been employed in its production. Of the diction we cannot speak very favourably: it is generally perspicuous and spirited, but it is too often inaccurate and faulty, and it sometimes makes attempts at elevation and effect which are by no means successful. Notwithstanding these and other drawbacks, the work is a sensible and a valuable one. If Mr. Prior have not accomplished all that the fame of Burke demanded, some excuse may be found for him in the difficulties which beset his undertaking. He could not have chosen one less capable of successful execution.

Perhaps the empire stands more deeply indebted to Burke, looking at what it has been preserved from, at what has been preserved to it, and at what it has obtained, than to any other individual-perhaps no other individual ever equalled him in great and extraordinary achievements, accomplished by the mere force of intellect—but no martial victories, no splendid series of ministerial labours, scarcely any of the things which generally give shape and perpetuity to the highest kind of fame, embody his transcendent powers and services to the gaze of the world. His mighty genius soared far above these, for the means of benefiting his country, and the most important of its triumphs, were too vast, complex, and exalted in their nature, to be judged of by the ordinary modes of definition and valuation. In consequence, much of the glory which belongs to him has been given to others. The nation annually heaps new honours on the tomb of Pitt, while that of Burke-of the man who smote, divided, and paralyzed a mighty revolutionary Opposition-crushed an almost irresistible multitude of revolutionary teachers-stayed the

frenzy of the community-converted apostacy and terror into impassioned fidelity and chivalrous daring-in a word, who formed the arena for Pitt, and created the host by which he conquered-is forgotten.

Nothing could well be more unnecessary than to add to the legitimate fame of Pitt the fame belonging to another; but, nevertheless, those who adopt his name and revere his memory, will not suffer any portion that has been assigned to him, to be taken away. In addition to this, those who call themselves his followers, have lately embraced principles and policy which clash greatly with those which Burke recommended in similar circumstances. Our other political parties have a direct interest in employing every effort to destroy Burke's reputation altogether. If he were a statesman and a patriot, Fox was a driveller and a demagogue-if his principles were truth and wisdom, the Whigs are the most blind and dishonoured body of men that the world ever contained. The Benthamites have equal cause with the Whigs to detest him. Though his ashes slumber in the tomb, his voice is still heard to confound them-his spirit still walks the earth to scatter their dogmas and schemes to the winds, and to hold them up to the derision of mankind.

Of course, a biographer, to do full justice to the fame of Burke, should be able to sketch, distinctly and vividly, the effects which his speeches and writings produced, both to his own country and to Europe-he should be able to draw the line between the triumphs of his hero and those of Pitt-he should be able to pourtray the mighty influence and prodigious errors, follies, and guilt, of Fox and the Whigs-he should be able to paint the tremendous and appalling array of enemies, difficulties, and sorrows, which Burke had to encounter when he gained the most glorious of his victories, and which would have crushed and destroyed any spirit but his own-and he should be able to cope with, not only the delusions, but the prejudices and the wickedness of parties. He should possess a mind equally dauntless and impartial-determined to be alike just and unsparing, and to deal as liberally in condemnation as panegyric-aware that, as it had espoused the cause of one whom almost all conspired to wrong, it could only do justice to him by treating every enemy with due severity.

We wish, not more for the sake of Burke than for the sake of the country, that his memory was held in due estimation. If a nation expect to possess great men, it must consecrate their ashes and preserve from stain their glory-if it expect to have wise rulers, it must teach its children to revere its departed sages. We think the writings of this great and wonderful man have lately lost no inconsiderable portion of their influence. Although they were so strikingly applicable to some of the leading topics of the last two sessions of Parliament, we could find but few traces of them in the discussions. Amidst the gigantic events which concluded the war, and the subsequent revolutionary convulsions of Europe, the late

Marquis of Londonderry-we name it to his eternal honourseemed to take Burke for his guide, but with his death the influence of Burke appeared to terminate. We regret this deeply. Setting aside other matters, we are convinced that Burke's theory for constructing and governing society-for creating and preserving general liberty and happiness-can never be shaken; and therefore we are convinced that every departure from it is a departure into

error.

Allowing as liberally as we please for the infirmities of mankind, there is something in this not a little extraordinary. The compositions of Burke are inimitable in literary beauty, and this, if they had possessed no other recommendation, ought to have obtained for them constant perusal and powerful influence. But, in addition, they treat of the highest interests of individuals and nations; they give the most profound and magnificent views of those things on which the tongue of the Englishman dwells for ever; the splendours of the diction only serve to pourtray the most astonishing triumphs of genius, knowledge, wisdom, and philosophy. Moreover, that portion of them which, when they were written, appeared to be but opinion and speculation, has been proved by time to have been sublime truth and unerring prophecy. Burke died the greatest of sages-a man gifted with even superhuman wisdom -and the grave has made him a wonderful prophet. One of the most striking peculiarities of his late works is-they form a chain of predictions, respecting some of the most momentous, novel, and complicated of human events, which have been accomplished to the letter. Finally, the history of Europe for the last seven years has been of a description to compel the nation to study the topics on which he wrote, and to drive it to the stores of instruction which he provided.

When those who boast so eternally of the increased knowledge and wisdom of the world, shall explain to our satisfaction why the writings of Burke, which treat of the form and regulations of society, are not in every man's hands-why they are not quoted and acted upon by our statesmen-why they are not incorporated with public opinion--why the nation does not make them its test in judging of revolutionists, revolutionary creeds, and revolutionsand why Fox is still worshipped, while the ashes of Burke slumber almost without notice, we will then cease to treat their boasts with derision.

We regret that our limits will not permit us to extract Mr. Prior's details and anecdotes respecting Burke's private character. They prove that he was one of the best, as well as one of the greatest, of men. The generous and ready assistance which he ever rendered to destitute genius whenever it appealed to him, ought to endear his name to every friend of literature and the arts. His munificent patronage of Barry is well known, and several of his admirable letters to the artist enrich Mr. Prior's work.

Two reasons prevent us from quoting more largely from the voJume. One is, the belief that our readers are already familiar with the leading incidents of Burke's life, and the other is, a wish to employ the remainder of our paper in enforcing some of the many lessons which his history offers to our public men, our political parties, and the country.

The circumstances which led this wonderful man into public life, are not a little remarkable. He had no romance in his composition he was a man of great caution, and vast foresight-he excelled all other men in comprehensive examination and unerring judgment-he had his full share of honourable ambition-he discovered immediately on his arrival in London, that "genius, the rath primrose, which forsaken dies,' was not patronized by any of the nobility, and that writers of the first talents were left to the capricious patronage of the public;"-and yet he abandoned the study of the law to become an author by profession. He forsook the path which seldom fails to lead moderate talents and industry to affluence and dignities, to follow that which rarely takes those who tread it to any thing but poverty and obscurity, until they are alike insensible to dishonour and fame.

This was singular, and it was still more singular, that after becoming a writer by profession, Burke should be able, without fortune, friends, and interest, as he was, to struggle into active and exalted political existence. If a man wish for a calling that will conduct him to honours and emolument-if he wish for a seat in Parliament, a post in the service of his country, and the legitimate rewards of public services-let him tug in our law courts at the intricacies and chicanery of Nisi Prius-let him become a cottonspinner-let him open a shawl shop in Fleet Street-let him do any thing rather than become a public writer. An author may realize a fair fortune by poetry and novels; but if he pass from these to subjects which are of far greater importance to the interests of the community, he must resign all hope of fortune and preferment. To him the gate of emolument and dignity is closed, while it constantly stands open to the members of almost every other profession.

Burke, however, was raised above all obstacles; his mighty powers were brought into their proper sphere of action almost by miracle. The mock philosophers of the day ascribe such things to chance and accident, but true philosophy secs an agency guide the fortunes of men and nations, which commands it to reason differently.

Burke was fashioned by nature for a statesman of the first class. Common men follow politics as a profession, he followed them from the irresistible impulses of political genius. Ambition, emolument, dignities, fame itself, had with him but secondary influence; he was led by a mind which was only in its natural element when amidst the profound, the stupendous, and the magnificent, which could only find enjoyment in investigating the condiVOL. VI. No. 35.-Museum.

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tion of the universe, the history of human nature, and the vast creation of principle and experiment-and which was only labouring in its destined occupation when solving what was incomprehensible, and performing what was impossible, to ordinary politicians when regulating kingdoms, and guiding mankind. In politics, as in the arts, common minds may rise to respectable mediocrity, but none save men like Burke may reach truth, nature, originality, grandeur, and sublimity. That which formed the limit of the labours of others, was but the commencement of his-his eye was the most powerful in the regions to which the eyes of others could not ascend-his gigantic powers never fully unfolded themselves, until they were left without path, copy, and ally. While he was supported by a party, and had merely the common feelings and occurrences of the world to deal with, he was only one of the greatest of men; but when he was deserted-when Europe was a scene of passion, convulsion, and chaos-when precedent failed him-when every thing around him in feeling and deed was novelty-when every tongue was either silent or espousing the cause of error and ruin-he then became a guardian angel: the man shook off the infirmities and disabilities of human nature, and seemed to grasp the wisdom, the omniscience, and the power of Heaven.

A mind so perfectly constituted as his, rarely indeed illuminates this wretched world. He was a man of surpassing genius, without the eccentricities and frailties of genius. The prodigious power of his imagination only rendered his judgment more comprehensive and unerring. His passions only strengthened his virtue and wisdom. His mighty intellect scorned slumber, enemy, and boundary, and yet it scarcely ever wandered from the pure, the true, the expedient, and the beneficial-it excelled alike in the most dissimilar employments-it would make no division in the science of government, and it possessed itself with equal ease of the bewildering calculations of finance, the perplexing details of commerce and agriculture, the widely-spread mysteries of general policy, and the abstruse, complicated, and numberless principles and feelings, which form the foundations of society, and the primary rulers of mankind.

In these glorious days of gorgeous names and wonderful systems, it is the fashion to mark the distinctions between truth and error, wisdom and folly, by the terms, practical and theoretic. The man who propagates false opinions, and labours to introduce pernicious changes, is called, not a fool, or a knave, but a theorist. Burke is called a practical statesman, while those whom he opposed are named theoretic ones. This is, we think, alike erroneous and mischievous. Burke was as much a theorist, in the proper sense of the term, as Fox, or the French revolutionists. They differed in this-his theory was, in the highest degree, true, scientific, philosophic, magnificent, and practicable, and theirs was directly the contrary. Men, and bodies of men, were the objects,