of suffering, exhibited with marvellous perspicuity, many ladies, amongst them Mrs. Sheridan, fainted; the chancellor was evidently moved; the court repeatedly called out, “ Hear, hear." The prisoner was seen to turn pale. For three days it lasted, and, as a model of eloquence, is worthy of being ranked with Demosthenes' crowning oration, or with Cicero's invectives against Verres. He was followed by Sheridan, Fox, and the other managers. Gradually, however, the feeling of interest in the trial wore off, as year after year it continued, till, except on extraordinary occasions, it became a matter of course. Seven years elapsed before its termination, when Hastings was acquitted, paying his own costs, which amounted to £70,000.

For some time previous to the occurrence of the events we are narrating, the dark cloud of revolution, which was to envelop Europe in its shade, was hovering in the distant horizon, and waiting but the signal to deluge France with anarchy and the world with wars. This was brought about in 1789 by the king ordering the States-General, which, after the lapse of above a century, he had summoned on an extraordinary crisis, to dissolve, and on its refusal endeavouring to compel its submission by violence. The sequel is well known. The populace supported their representatives; the army joined the mob; the Bastile was stormed; the king, after a dreadful massacre of his Swiss guards, was compelled to resign all power, and, finally, after a confinement of several years, was guillotined, a fate which shortly befell his innocent consort, the accomplished, the amiable, and the beautiful Marie Antoinette.

Whilst on its first ebullition the French Revolution was regarded by the opposition and the public at large as the triumph of liberty over regal despotism; whilst Fox and Sheridan were loud in their applause of the new republic, Burke's profound mind clearly foresaw to what results the unbridled passions of an inflamed people would lead. His sentiments were expressed, in the following year, in the "Reflections on the French Revolution," which obtained unbounded admiration and esteem. In 1791 he broke with Fox and his party on the subject of the French affairs, and thus was severed a friendship consecrated, during a quarter of a century, by united efforts in the cause of freedom, and by the mutual esteem of each other's marvellous powers. To Burke, on this occasion, blame is due, for the hasty manner in which he broke off all connections with the great leader of the opposition, and the desertion of that party to which he had previously been so faithfully attached.

On his rupture with Fox he was soon on friendly terms with Pitt and his friends. His parliamentary career was, however, hastening to a close. In 1794 he finally retired from public affairs, and was succeeded by his only son, Richard, as representative of Malton; a son in whom his fondest hopes were centred, but whose promising career was interrupted the same year by death. Bereft at the time of life when new acquaintances are undesired, Burke felt the blow most keenly, and never fully recovered from its effects.

He was offered a peerage, which was declined; and at the same

time a pension of £3,700 a year, for the joint lives of himself and wife, which he accepted. During the interval between his withdrawal from Parliament and his death, he lived in great retirement, sometimes diverting himself with literature, and producing several pamphlets, especially on the situation of affairs. In 1797 his health began to fail, and he repaired to Bath for four months, at the end of which time, no signs of recovery appearing, he was taken to his home at Beaconsfield, where, on the 8th July, he breathed his last, in his sixty-eighth year.

When Burke was no more, Fox, in whose breast envy was not, to his honour first proposed that the illustrious dead should be publicly interred in Westminster Abbey; this, however, was prevented by his will, which enjoined his burial beside his brothers and son, in Beaconsfield Church.

Edmund Burke was a man who would not stoop to be a drudge; the unprincipled partisans of a faction found no ally in him; he was ever a follower of what he believed to be the right, in opposition to the expedient. He was a philosopher; with science, with physics, with politics, and literature he was equally conversant. His conversational powers were unrivalled. He was endowed with a gorgeous eloquence, and rhetoric abounding with some of the most sublime language that any tongue can boast of. "The flush of imagery sometimes deserts his pages, but the flow of thought never. His genius startles the state paper style which he is often compelled to employ into life and power; and around the barest and coldest calculations of reason he suddenly wreathes the real and scarcely seen thread of imagination." In penetration of the future he was before his age: whilst others selfishly pursued the interests of to-day, his large mind took in posterity. His oratory was adorned with refined imagery, but, strange to say, his rising was but too often the signal for the flight of his audience, which is partly to be attributed to his inattention to what-certainly a moral law with ordinary minds-is aptly expressed in a proverb, that "he is the speaker who knows when to leave off." That he was not without his faults is undeniable; for his hasty rupture with Fox, and the desertion of that party to which he had been so long a supporting pillar, blame is due. The charge of vanity, brought against him by his opponents, receives a due amount of plausibility on a review of his life. Like Napoleon, he was too anxious to hand his name down to future generations as that of a great man. With all his faults, however, Burke may justly be placed amongst Britain's foremost sons. Since the days of Bacon no such massive talents had been concentrated in an Englishman till the subject of our narrative appeared upon the scene. Pitt and Fox were men of their times-Burke was the product of a nation's existence.

To the policy which he advocated were due the triumphs of Nelson and Wellington, and the ultimate downfall of Napoleon. While Pitt died broken-hearted for his country, Burke foretold, with dying breath, her approaching elevation, and the final victory of right and justice over tyranny and avarice. A. H.

The Reviewer.

The Crimes of the Whigs. By THOMAS DOUBLEDAY. London and Edinburgh: "Blackwood and Sons.

THE signature Britannicus is nearly as famous in the North of England as that of Captain Hercules Vinegar, Junius, or Peter Porcupine, respectively borne by Henry Fielding-Who knows who? and William Cobbett. It is borne by one who held the secretaryship of the Northern Union, including the three counties of Northumberland, Durham, and Cumberland, in the prime of his life; one who laboured with the zeal of an earnest spirit for the weal of the people in the anxious hours that preceded and succeeded the passing of the Reform Bill; one who, having been among the primores of Blackwood's Magazine, was also a disciple of William Cobbett; one who, though distinguished as an elegant essayist, a composer of pleasing verses, a writer of thoughtful and plotful dramas and a vigorous romance, has yet with singularly adventurous versatility given to the world biographies, histories, treatises on political economy, and issued tractates on hymnology, plutocracy, and piscatorial pursuits, besides pamphlets on almost all the prevailing questions of the day. His pen is known, not only in his separately published works, but in almost every newspaper in the country, especially the northern part of it, as well as in Blackwood's Magazine, the Eclectic Review, the British Quarterly Review, &c. The Manchester Guardian has had its columns enriched by him, and the signature "Britannicus" is that which in the Newcastle Daily Journal masks, but does not hide, the personality of a man of vigorous and various genius, of lofty moral tone, of political earnestness and literary power, Thomas Doubleday. Our readers, by referring to the review of "Touchstone" contained in our issue for August, 1863, will find an outline of his literary efforts much too meagre, but all that we could then give. Local authorities speak of him as one of the ablest men in Newcastle, and one of the worthiest men in the world," and this we can well believe, not only from our perusal of his works, but from such personal intercourse as it has been our good fortune occasionally, but all too seldom, to enjoy. In 1839 his labours for Reform were acknowledged by a public banquet and presentation in the Music Hall of the metropolis of coal, and in 1863 the ability of the statist was noted by his appointment as secretary of the Statistical Section of the British Association, at its meetings in Newcastle.

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This last work is a bold and outspoken one, and bears for its subtitle "A Radical's Reasons for supporting the Tory Party at the next General Election." It consists of a re-issue of thirteen letters published in the Newcastle Daily Journal, with a preface of twelve pages. From this prefatory part we extract the following passage,

as a specimen of the composition, and a partial indication of the spirit of the work, and the political morality the author inculcates,

VIZ.:

"Nations cannot go on interminably in this course of decadence. A nation can no more destroy its own character with impunity than can an individual. To be contemptible in ourselves and contemned of all that are not of ourselves, is certain ruin. It is destruction to the nation as well as to the individual. We cannot go on toadying the French Emperor, crawling to Russia, crouching to the German Powers, and sneaking away like a frightened cur from the supercilious defiance of President Lincoln and Mr. Seward; whilst we are all the time wasting our resources in dirty wars in China, India, and Japan, to force the sale of a little more calico. There is no lesson in all history so striking as that which teaches that a great nation, untrue to itself, must fall. Lesser powers lean on the greater, and are protected; but a power originally great cannot become a protégé. When it falls, it must fall as a victim, and its members be scrambled for by its rivals and neighbours. To this catastrophe we are, at present, manifestly tending, and must continue to tend, if the party now in power be permitted to retain that power. As the energies of the nation become enfeebled and prostrate, the men of heart and mind will leave it to its fate; and after Canada shall have become a United State of America, after India shall have become Russia's, after Gibraltar shall be yielded to Spain, and Ireland and Malta be dependencies of France, the usurers and spinners may remain, to cram their sordid pockets as they may, under the gracious licence of the Emperor of the French, or the Muscovite Czar."

In these letters a good deal of history, especially political history, is interpreted, and so taught that, whether we agree with the author's explanations or not, it may yet be usefully read. The terrible indictment regarding the foreign policy-usually regarded as the strong point-of the Whig administrations is epitomized in the following abstract from Letter XII., while the articulate proofs are given in the preceding ones, and the lessons suggested for practical political life are supplied in the last, or noted in the preface. Merely as an historical outline this passage is useful and able.

1. The French send an army to overturn the Spanish Constitution set up by this country, and are not opposed.

2. The Peel and Wellington Cabinet, bullied by the Czar, ask him as a favour to raise the blockade of Enos.

3. The Catholic Association and O'Connell threatened to stop all the Irish Banks, and Emancipation follows.

4. The French bombard and take Algiers, and plant the colony of Algeria, despite the remonstrances of England. 5. Second fight of the Bourbons.

refuses to relinquish Algeria.

The new king, Louis Philippe, peremptorily

6. Belgium throws off the yoke of Holland, the king of which declines paying any longer the Russo-Dutch Loan, whilst England goes on paying.!

7. The Poles revolt. France is willing to aid them; but England declines to do so, still paying upon the Russo-Dutch Loan, and thus enabling the Russians to crush Poland.

8. The Russians destroy British influence in Persia, and invade Circassia. They illegally seize the British ship Vixen off the Circassian coast, and confiscate her, in spite of Lord Durham's remonstrance and protest.

9. Palmerston justifies the Russian seizure as legal to the House of Commons; refusing, at the same time, to divulge the opinion of the law officers of the Crown. He is openly accused of treachery by Mr. Thomas Attwood, M.P. for Birmingham.

10. The King of Holland, to whom the settlement of the boundary of the State of Maine had been left by agreement between the American Congress and the British Government, gives his award. It is refused by the State of Maine, backed by the Senate of the United States; and the British Ministry, by Palmerston's advice, submits.

11. The Persians, assisted by Russian engineers, besiege Herat, one of the keys to British India. It is saved by the skill and intrepidity of Lieut. Pottinger, a British officer, who is neglected notwithstanding.

12. A rebellion in Canada.

The American steamer Caroline assisting the rebels, is destroyed by Macleod, a British commissioned officer; Mr. Macleod is, contrary to the law of nations, seized and tried in the State of Maine for murder, the British Government only "protesting."

13. Vicovich, a Russian emissary, sent to Cabul to form a coalition against Great Britain. The Affghan war, in which an army is lost. After the death of Sir Alexander Burnes his despatches are altered at the Foreign Office, to make it appear he advised the war. His friends publish true copies of the despatches. Mr. Dunlop accuses Lord Palmerston of conniving at the forgery. The House counted out to evade a division.

14. The Republic of the United States annexes Texas, the independence of which Great Britain had guaranteed. The British Ministers "protest," but submit.

15. The free entrepot of Cracow is destroyed by Russia and Austria in direct violation of the Treaty of Vienna. Lord Palmerston advises the House of Commons to submit, and submission to the outrage follows.

16 Russia occupies the mouth of the Danube, in violation of the Treaty of Vienna, and levies tolls. The British Government "protests," and submits. 17. British influence in Spain destroyed a second time, by Louis Philippe. Espartero flies to England. Narvaez and his friends rule despotically. Sir Henry Bulwer, the British ambassador, remonstrating, is ordered by the Duke de Soto to quit Madrid in a few hours. The British Government acquiesces in the insult, saying, "Spain is a weak power."

18. The French revolt against Louis Philippe, who flies. The Republic proclaimed. Great Britain at once acknowledges the Republic.

19. Louis Napoleon elected President of the French Republic. The Don Pacifico dispute. Lord Palmerston violates the stipulations of the Treaty of London, and the President orders the French ambassador to quit London. The news is received with unanimous and loud cheering by the National Assembly. Lord Palmerston consents to return to the Treaty of London, and to sign another to give Denmark to Russia.

20. Louis Napoleon subverts the Republic by force. The British Government acknowledges the new Government; Lord Palmerston eulogizes Louis Napoleon.

21. The Emperor, Louis Napoleon, interests the Sultan on behalf of the Latin Church, and obtains some slight concession. The Czar Nicholas demands the protectorate of the Greek Church. The Sultan refuses, and calls for the aid of France and Great Britain. The French fleet enters the Turkish waters. The British fleet, per force, follows. Menschikoff quits Constantinople. The Russians seize upon Moldavia and Wallachia.

22. France and England agree upon a note, which the Czar accepts. The Sultan refuses, and declares war against the Czar. The massacre of Sinope. The combined fleets enter the Black Sea. War between France and England and Russia. The right of search waived by Great Britain. Austrian medi