The opinion of Mr. Burke, in the argument with Hume, respecting the Irish records, of facts being much misrepresented in all historical notices of that country, as an examination of the original documents would show, is stated with some force in the fragments of his tract on the Popery laws.

He calls the histories of Ireland "miserable performances," and adds-" But there is an interior history of Ireland, the genuine voice of its records and monuments, which speaks a very different language from these histories-from Temple and from Clarendon; these restore nature to its just rights, and policy to its proper order. For they even now show to those who have been at the pains to examine them, and they may show one day to all the world, that these rebellions were not produced by toleration, but by persecution; that they arose not from just and mild government, but from the most unparalleled oppression. These records will be far from giving the least countenance to a doctrine so repugnant to humanity and good sense, as that the security of any establishment, civil or religious, can ever depend upon the misery of those who live under it, or that its danger can ever arise from their quiet and prosperity.”*

About this time Mr. Burke occasionally resided at Plaistow in Essex. A lady, then about fourteen years old, and residing in that neighbourhood, informs the writer that she perfectly remembers him there; that his brother Richard lived chiefly with

Burke's Works, vol. ix. p. 393.

him; and that they were much noticed in the neighbourhood for talents and sociable qualities, and particularly for having a variety of visitors who were understood to be authors soliciting a private opinion of their works, and not unfrequently men of rank.

Some of the best books of the time, as Hume and Robertson's Histories, Leland's Philip of Macedon, Walpole's Royal and Noble Authors, and a variety of others, were sent for his perusal, and some were noticed in the Annual Register, though it may be doubted whether his connection with that work was known. In noticing Johnson's Rasselas, in this year, there is an observation of his which has been often repeated since by other critics, as if the writers claimed it for their own. "The instruction which is found in works of this kind, when they convey any instruction at all, is not the predominant part, but arises accidentally in the course of a story planned only to please. But in this novel, the moral is the principal object, and the story is a mere vehicle to convey the instruction."

A letter to his uncle about this time (11th of October, 1759, from Wimpole-street), alludes to his brother Richard's first trip to the West Indies on a mercantile adventure

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My brother has been beforehand with me in almost every thing I could say. My conduct stands in need of as many apologies as his, but I am afraid our apologies might be almost as troublesome as our neglects. All I can say is, that I have been, I think it is now eleven years, from the county of Cork, yet my remembrance of my friends there is as fresh as if I

had left it yesterday. My gratitude for their favours, and my love for their characters, is rather heightened, as the oftener I think of them-and I think of them very often, they must be. This I can say with great truth. Believe me, dear Sir, it would be a great pleasure to me to hear as often from you as it is convenient. Do not give yourself any trouble about franks; I value very little that trifling expense, and I should very little deserve to hear from my friends, if I scrupled to pay a much higher price for that satisfaction. If I had any thing that you could have pleasure in to send you from hence, I should be a punctual correspondent; there is nothing here except what the newspapers contain, that can interest you; but nothing can come from the Blackwater which does not interest me very greatly. Poor Dick is on the point of quitting us; however, he has such advantageous prospects where he is going, that I part from him with the less regret. One of the first merchants here has taken him by the hand, and enabled him to go off with a very valuable cargo. He has another advantage and satisfaction in his expedition; one of our best friends here goes at the same time in one of the first places in the island."

Besides Lord Bath, Lord Lyttleton, and Horace Walpole, Mr. Burke knew several other persons who had been opposed to, or connected with, the administration of Sir Robert Walpole; and from these he derived some information regarding the secret politics of the time, as well as formed a more favourable opinion of that minister than many have been inclined to entertain. In more than one of his pamph

lets he speaks of him with respect. In conversation also he used to say, that no minister aimed more sincerely at the real prosperity of the country, or went more wisely to work to secure it, had not the violence of opposition often prevented him from doing as he wished. He did justice to his good humour, his affability, and his sociable qualities, which gained him friends even among his political opponents.

It was Mr. Burke who first told the story, which has been since so often repeated, of Sir Robert, who when he had retired to private life from the fatigues of public business, desired his son to get him a book to read to him. The son asked on what subject? -should it be history? No, said Sir Robert, not history; there can be no truth in that. He admitted philosophical speculations, travels, and Pliny; but from his own experience he was convinced that history could not be true.

Mr. William Burke was also frequently a visitor at Plaistow, who, possessing very considerable talents, literary and political, and united in the strictest friendship with Edmund and Richard from boyhood, was said to be associated with them in some of their writings.

On the publication in 1760 of Lord Bath's letter to two great men, meaning Mr. Pitt and the Duke of Newcastle, on the propriety of retaining Canada in preference to any acquisitions in the West Indies, in the proposed conditions of peace, this gentleman wrote a reply, strongly recommending the retention of Guadaloupe and other islands; to which Dr. Franklin thought it necessary to write a rejoinder, supporting

the opinion of Lord Bath.* Another pamphlet, said to have been corrected by Edmund, came from the pen of William Burke, in 1761, on the failure of the negociation with M. Bussy, entitled, " An Examination of the Commercial Principles of the late Negociation." Some further notices of this gentleman will occur hereafter; it may be remarked, however, that he and Richard Burke wrote much on political topics in the newspapers and other periodical works at this time, and for nearly twenty years afterwards, which has been improperly attributed to Edmund, who, from being in parliament, found sufficient employment in pursuing nobler game.

A letter to Agmondisham Vesey, Esq., an old college acquaintance, dated from Sunning Hill, Sept. 10, 1760, and addressed to his friend at Lucan, alludes to one of those momentary fits of displeasure sometimes felt by his father from the cause already mentioned

"I cannot express how much I am obliged to you for your kind and successful endeavours in my favour; of whatever advantage the remittance was, the assurance you give me of my father's reconciliation was a great deal more pleasing, and both indeed were rendered infinitely more agreeable to me by passing through your hands. I am sensible how very much I am indebted to your good nature upon this occasion. If one has but little merit, it is some

The opinion of the Burkes, after all, was the most just America with such a neighbour would have become more dependant on England. M. de Vergennes used to mention it as one of the greatest political errors that had ever been committed.

Butler's Reminiscences, p. 156.