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. SECOND EDITION, ENLARGED TO TWO VOLUMES, BY A VARIETY OF ORIGINAL LETTERS, ANECDOTES, PAPERS, AND OTHER ADDITIONAL MATTER. VOL. II. LONDON: PRINTED FOR BALDWIN, CRADOCK, AND JOY. Anecdote of Burke at Mr. Crewe's.-Adventure with a Poor Artist.-Regency Question.-Letter to Mr. Pitt.-Letter to Mr. Montagu.--French Revolution.--Letters to M. Menonville.-Letters from Edmund, the two Richards, and Mrs. Burke, to Mrs. French.-Rupture with Mr. Publication of Reflections on the Revolution in France.- Testimonies in its favour.-Reply of Burke to the Uni- versities of Dublin and Oxford, and to Mr. Cumberland.- Thomas Paine.-Character of Henry IV. of France.- Letter to a Member of the National Assembly.-Rupture Anecdote of Burke's unobtrusive Spirit.-Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs.-French Emigrants.-Letter to Mr. (now Baron) Smith.-Writings on French Affairs, and on the Roman Catholic Claims.-Sir Joshua Reynolds. -Parliamentary Business.-Letter on the Death of Mr. Letter to the Duke of Portland on the Conduct of the Mino- rity.-Letter to Mr. Smith.-Character of Mr. Dundas.— Remarks on the Policy of the Allies.-Letters to General O'Hara, Mr. Murphy, and Mr. Dolphin.-Richard Burke the elder.-Report upon the Causes of the Duration of Correspondence with William Smith, Esq. (of Ireland) on the Roman Catholic Question.-Second Letter to Sir Herculus Langrishe, on the same Subject.-Letter to William Elllott, Esq., on the Attack of the Duke of Norfolk in the House of Lords.-Letters to Mrs. Salisbury Haviland.-Letter to Lord Auckland, with Remarks on his Pamphlet.-Letter to William Smith, Esq.-Thoughts and Details on Scarcity.-Anecdotes.-Grant of a Pension. Letter to a Noble Lord, in Reply to an Attack of the Establishment of the Emigrant School at Penn.-Letters to W. H, and to J. Gahagan, Esq.-Letters on a Regi- cide Peace.-His Prophetic Spirit, as opposed to that of Mr. Pitt.-Report concerning him.-Letter to Mrs. Lead- His Person.-Manners.-Habits.-Conversational Powers CHAPTER I. Anecdote of Burke at Mr. Crewe's.-Adventure with a poor Artist.-Regency Question.-Letter to Mr. Pitt.-Letter to Mr. Montagu. French Revolution.-Letters to M. Menonville.-Letters from Edmund, the two Richards, and Mrs. Burke, to Mrs. French.-Rupture with Mr. Sheridan.-Correspondence with Mr. Mercer.-Parliamentary Business.-Mr. G. Hamilton. DURING the period of the application to Parliament of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales for an increase of income in order to the liquidation of his debts, Mr. Sheridan, who was then supposed to stand high in the confidence of the illustrious personage, was commenting in strong terms, when dining one day at the table of Mr. Crewe, on the hardship of the case, and the disinclination shown by the executive government to assist him; concluding with a kind of authoritative assertion, that if not granted, His Royal Highness must discontinue the necessary repairs of Carlton House, and must retire from the dignity of his public station into the obscurity of private life. Mr. Burke, who with several other members of Opposition was present, observed in reply, that though no one could wish more heartily than himself that no obstacle should be thrown by Mr. Pitt in the way of an amicable accommodation, yet even were the application refused, he saw no perfectly satisfactory reason for adopting the threatened alternative. 66 Admitting," said he, "that some |