accessisse ad causam; that he was prepared for the subject in discussion, so prepared as implied not merely special inquiry for a temporary purpose, but general systematic information. He inferred from their charters, that the proposed restraint was an invasion of their rights; and from the reports of the Committee, that there did not exist a necessity, which alone could justify the proposed invasion. From the quickness with which the reports had been made out, respecting the complicated concerns of so great a company, he contended that it arose not from a full examination of their affairs, but from a previous resolution. To serious reasonings he joined wit and ridicule. Speaking of the two Committees, the open and the secret, he said, Here is a Committee. appointed last session, a fair and open Committee, which has produced nothing. This was the lawful wife, publicly avowed; but finding her barren, the Minister has taken a little snug one which he calls a Secret Committee, and this bill is her first-born

Indeed from the singular expedition of this extraordinary delivery, I suspect she was pregnant BEFORE wedlock."

At a farther stage of the bill he made another speech, shewing the various proceedings of Parliament respecting the India Company, from its commencement, the consequences of the several acts; and, on this new ground, maintaining the inexpediency of the proposed bill. The subject had before gone through the discussion of the ablest speakers on both sides; but Burke's genius, after the question appeared exhausted, both by others and himself, was able to give it all the charms of novelty. He again placed the dissimilar speed of the two Committees in a very ludicrous view. One has been so slow, that the Company expects no redress from it; the other so rapid, that the Company know not where it will stop: like the fly of a jack, the one has gone hey-go-mad, the other like the ponderous lead at the other end.' In describing ironically, in this speech, the qualifications of a modern

1

.

good member of parliament, he quotes the following rules for what formerly made a good monk: Tria faciunt monachum. Bene loqui de superiore. Legere breviarium taliter qualiter, et sinere res vadere ut vadunt:' which, applying to a member, he translated so

Speak well of the Minister; read the lesson be sets you; and let the State take care of itself. Such a quotation, respecting the qualifications of a monk, is not that of a St. Omers papist.

These instances, among numberless others, shew the opinion of Johnson, that Burke did not possess wit, to be erroneous.

The following is part of his peroration on the probable consequences of the influx of Indian wealth if at the disposal of the Crown: • What will become of us, if the Ganges pours in upon us in a new tide of corruption? Should the evil genius of British Liberty so ordain it, I fear this house will be so far from removing the corruption of the East, that it will, itself, be from the East

corrupted. I fear more from the infection of that place than I hope from your virtue. Was it not the sudden plunder of the East that gave the final blow to the freedom of Rome? What reason have we to expect a better fate? I attest, heaven and earth, that in all places, and all times, I HAVE HITHERTO SHOVED BY THE GILDED HAND OF CORRUPTION, and endeavoured to stem the torrent which threatens to overwhelm this island.

Although the friends of Burke must acknowledge that sometimes the vigour of his fancy and the torrent of impetuous passion transported him beyond the bounds of reason,' his enemies cannot disprove the truth of his assertion, I HAVE SHOVED BY CORRUPTION. If emolument could have tempted him, can it be doubted that a man of his extraordinary powers might have had the most profitable offices? Can we suppose that the Duke of Grafton and Lord North, both of whom are known to have employed very inferior men as literary and political

supporters, would not have given a very high price to purchase the powers of Burke? If he had chosen the opposite cause, his parliamentary and literary talents might have been exercised in courting the favour of the most opulent body in the world: he might have promoted the violent and inflammatory measures of the citizens of London; their plans of a total change in Parliament, and their insolent abusive remonstrances to the Sovereign: City appointments of the most lucrative kind would have been the sure rewards of sedition and disloyalty, arrayed in all the charms of wit and eloquence.

The steady and powerful friend of rational liberty, Burke was the determined enemy of court corruption and of democratical licentiousness; directing his efforts against the one or the other, as it happened at the time to require resistance. It was his uniform opinion, that eastern riches were pro→ ducing a most important and hurtful change in the manners and morals of Britain; an