ORIGINAL LETTERS OF BURKE. CHANCE has put into our hands a bundle of original letters of Burke to some of his relatives, written between the years 1759 and 1780. They recall his memory in an amiable light; and being penned in confidence, and not designed for the public eye, by the writer, they reflect a more correct image of the man, his private character, and kindness of heart, than studied compositions could do. The reader will observe the tone that pervades these epistles with no small satisfaction, reflecting that it imbued the mind of one of the great names of the past age; and then recalling the circumstances of Burke's public life in after years, he will perhaps think how much the brilliancy of his transmitted glory is enhanced by those virtues of the heart, which confer on man his highest merit. The first letter, for it is best to come at once to the point, and not keep the reader from the things themselves—the first letter is dated 1759, and is addressed to his uncle.*-It is as follows: I. DEAR SIR,-Cousin Will Burke left London yesterday. He made our little sett very happy by his company, and by the account he gave of all our friends on the Blackwater. He said that you were so good to express some desire of hearing from us; I am too much pleased with the intelligence to inquire very closely into it; but gladly lay hold of the first opportunity of assuring you, how heartily I am rejoiced to find I have still some place in your remembrance; I am sure I should entertain a very bad opinion of my own memory, and a much worse of my heart, if I was capable of forgetting the many obligations I owe you. There are very few persons in the world for whom I have so great a respect, or whose good opinion I should be more glad to have than yours. When I had resolved to write to you, I was at a loss to know how I should make my letters worth the trouble I must give you in sending for them, (for you must know I intend to trouble you in that way very often,) but I recollected that some of our London newspapers might prove no disagreeable entertainment to you, and that by this means you would receive some accounts earlier than the Dublin papers can give them. I therefore enclose with this what I think one of our best and most entertaining news-letters, as it not only contains as much of all foreign transactions as any of the others, but often such remarks upon them, as may serve to explain many public affairs, or at least, shew something of the general conversation here concerning them. It contains, besides, some accounts of the new books which are from time to time published. I should have done this some days ago, but I waited to get in such a stock of franks as to enable me to continue to send you the papers without interruption. In the beginning of my letter, I made mention of Will Burke's having begun his journey; but lest his family should hear of it, and, expecting to see him soon, may be uneasy if they find him delayed longer than the journey requires, it is proper to let you know that *We presume, his uncle Nagle. Of the persons alluded to in these and subsequent letters, we hope to give some account in our next number. he may probably be obliged to wait some days in Chester for the arrival of Hugh Massey. By the little I have seen of that gentleman, he seems to have a great deal of goodnature. He is to go to Ireland in company with my Lord Carberry, and will labour, and, I hope, with success, to extricate Cousin Garret from the troublesome situation which I am heartily sorry to find he is in. I could employ what remains of my paper, and with great satisfaction to myself, in desiring my best remembrance to my friends with you and about you; but they are so many, and my good wishes for them all so hearty, that I should find it much easier to fill my paper than to satisfy myself. I must therefore trust to yours and their goodnature to represent what I must still be defective in, if I had said a great deal more. Mrs. Burke has not the pleasure of being known to you, but she joins me in the sincerest regards for you all; she desires in particular to be remembered to her sister Peggy, of whom she has heard many things that pleased her very much, from Mrs. Burke ; my love to her. My brother is in the city at a great distance from us, or he would gladly join us in the same sentiments to you and to her, and to all our friends. I am, my dear uncle, your very affectionate humble servant, London, Wimple-street, Cavendish-square, April 17, 1759. The second is addressed to the same relative, about which time Mr. Burke must have been in his 29th year. II. DEAR SIR,-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 they must be, and I think of them very often. 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 sort of 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. Mrs. Burke is very sensible of your goodness, and desires that I should make you her acknowledgments. We equally wish it were in our power to accept of your kind invitation; and that no greater obstacle intervened to keep us from seeing Ballyduffe, but the distance. We are too good travellers to be frighted at that. I have made a much longer journey than the land part of it this summer. However, it is not impossible but we may one day have the pleasure of embracing you at your own house. I beg you will salute for us the good houses of Ballydwalter, Ballylegan, and Ballynahaliok, et nati natorum, et qui nascuntur ab illis. Our little boys are very well, but I should think them still better, if they (or the one that is on his legs) were running about the Bawn at Ballyduffe as his father used to do. Farewell, my dear uncle, and believe me your affectionate kinsman and humble servant, EDM. BURKE. Wimple-street, Cavendish-square, 11th October, 1759. I forgot to say any thing of the irregularity which you may have found in the papers for some time passed. The summer has made the town thin of Members of Parliament, so that we were sometimes at a loss; but now we shall be pretty secure on that head, and you shall have your papers more regularly. The third letter is to A. Vesey, Esq. We cannot undertake to explain the allusions in these letters further than Memoirs of Burke, already given to the world, can enable the reader to do. III. obliged to you for of whatever advanme of my father's DEAR SIR,—I cannot express how much I am your kind and successful endeavours in my favour tage the remittance was, the assurance you give 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 goodnature upon this occasion. If one has but little merit, it is some consolation to have partial friends. Lord Lyttleton has been at Hagley for this month past, or near the matter; where for the first time he receives his friends in his new house. He was so obliging to invite me; I need not say that I am much concerned to find I shall not be able to obey his Lordship's commands, and that I must lose, for this year at least, the sight of that agreeable place, and the conversation of its agreeable owner. Mrs. Montagu is, I believe, at Tunbridge, for she told me, on her leaving town, that she intended to make a pretty long stay there. May I flatter myself with the hope of seeing you this winter in London? I cannot so easily forget the evenings I have passed not to be most desirous of renewing them. I wish most heartily that Mrs. Vesey's (health) may be so well established, that she may be able to bear the late sitting up, for I foresee that must be the case whenever she comes to London; it is a fine she must pay for being so agreeable. Mrs. Burke looks upon herself to be very unhappy that she had not the honour of being known to Mrs. Vesey, but is in hopes that she may this winter be so fortunate. Once more I give you thanks for your kind interposition. Believe me, dear Sir, your much obliged humble EDM. BURKE. servant, Sunning Hill, September 10th, 1760. To Agmondisham Vesey, Esq. at Lucan. * A word is omitted here. The fourth, fifth, and sixth Letters are as follows: IV. MY DEAR SIR,-Since I heard from you, our little party at Queen Anne Street has been reinforced by a person who loves you as well as I do, poor Richard of Grenada. He left that island in no very good state of health, and after a great deal of vexation from, but also after a great and perfect triumph over, his enemies, a set of the greatest villains that ever existed. He has a leave of absence for six months; and is, I think, already as completely re-established in health, strength, and spirits, as we could wish. We all join in giving you joy on the occasion of our friend Katty's match; and only wish her that she may be as happy in a husband as her mother was; and much as we regard her, we cannot wish her better. Pray remember our hearty congratulations to the young couple. I am sincerely concerned for the match that Garret Atty was so unfortunate as to make; and did from the beginning expect no better issue of it, in a county circumstanced as ours is; assure my uncle, that there is no one step on earth in my power that I would not gladly take to give ease to his mind, which must be cruelly agitated; I most sincerely pity him; but I believe, when he reflects how newly, and almost as a stranger, I am come about these people, and knows the many industrious endeavours which malice and envy (very unprovoked indeed) have used to ruin me, he will see that so early a request to suspend the operation of the laws, upon my bare word, against the finding of a jury of the greatest county of the kingdom, and that upon the most unpopular point in the world, could have no other effect, than to do me infinite prejudice, without the least possibility of succeeding in the object I aimed at. This, I am sure, your own good sense will point out to both of you, and will satisfy my uncle that no vain and timorous delicacy, but the real conviction I have of the inefficacy of the application with regard to him, prevents my taking a warm and active part in this affair. My brother tells me, that poor Barret is likely to do well in Grenada; he is industrious and active; he must indeed struggle with some difficulty and much labour at first; but it is the road, and the only road, to an establishment. It is now time for me to make some inquiry about my young friend your grandson Ned. I have really been so hurried with the many changes which have happened in my affairs and those of my friends for some time past, that I have not had leisure to inquire much about him. My brother and I will consult some proper method of having him sent to sea under honest and goodnatured management; give me some account of him, and whether you still continue of opinion that this way of life will be advisable for him. If your sentiments are the same they formerly were upon this article, I hope you had an eye to the sea in the education he has since had; we may in a short time complete it here. You cannot think how happy you would make us by writing often, and being as particular as you can about any thing that concerns you. Thank my cousin Garrett for his kind concern in my affairs: whenever he has any account to make up, he will settle it with you; by this you have my letter of attorney empowering you to act for me. If you should see counsellor Murphy and the Colonel, make my hearty compliments to them. Once more I beg to hear speedily from you. Jane and Dick are truly yours; so is, my dear uncle, your affectionate friend, Oct. 14th, 1765. E. BURKE. I saw Dick Hennessy here some time ago; his family is well; his wife ready to fall to pieces. I recollect that Garrett in his life-time used to allow to a poor neighbour of yours, some malt, or some such small present, at Christmas; let it be continued to him, and charge it to my account. Jenny intended as much more. Let him have it, either in that way or any other which he may like better; and if poor Philpot be alive, you will direct that he should have a dozen of port or some good strong wine at Christmas, and now and then a bottle or two before that time. You will advance the money to cousin Garrett, and place it to my account. Until they can be had to Dublin, be so good to be very careful of the papers in your hands. V. MY DEAR SIR,-I know you are too much concerned about us to suffer any little event of our lives to be altogether without importance to you. I sit down therefore, to let you know, that we are at last got, safe and well, to our own house in London; and had the satisfaction of meeting all those we love, at least as well as we left them. Our passage was extremely rough. We never had been in any storm like it. All of us very ill. But, thank God, we were not very long at sea; and very fine weather, and tolerable roads from Holyhead hither, made us ample amends for the tossing we suffered at sea. I received your letter in favour of Mr. James Nagle. His case is undoubtedly a very severe one, but the plot is laid deep, and the persons concerned in it are very determined and very wicked, as far as I can judge by the inquiries I have been capable of making into this affair. To attempt, even in the slightest manner, to take it out of the course of law, would be very idle; it would aggravate, instead of alleviating the mischief, and would furnish a new handle to those, who are already willing to use every method to oppress the innocence of their neighbours. All I can do is by my advice. The counsel which these gentlemen have had, are certainly men of ability and character, whom by all means they ought still to retain. But they ought to add to them some man of longer standing in the profession, and who, by being a member of parliament, will have weight, both in the court, and in representing the affair alone, for very obvious reasons. Mr. Harward is a man of great honour and spirit, perfectly well acquainted with every thing which relates to criminal law, and in every respect the fittest man they can possibly choose. It is the counsel I would advise you to take if you were in the same circumstances. I am thoroughly convinced of the innocence of these gentlemen, but far from sure that their lives are not in the greatest danger. They ought to neglect no means, nor grudge any expense they can go to. I did hear, indeed, with an astonishment, which I can scarcely express, that this measure had been originally proposed to them, and that they rejected it on account of the charge. If that consideration, in such a case, has any weight with them, I have nothing to say, but to lament their fate as that of men whose avarice has betrayed their lives, characters, and fortunes too, into the hands of their most bitter enemies; and whose weakness will |