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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.

C. Baldwin, Frinter,

New Bridge-street, London.

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

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