Burke it was the best scheme of things that humanity could devise for
the advancement and preservation of civilization. In the papers we have
mentioned, which were the great literary sensations of Burke's day,
everything that could be said for the system of political ethics under
which Europe had lived for a thousand years was said with a vigor,
incisiveness, and wealth of illustration which must make them for all
time and in all countries the arsenal of those who love the ancient ways
and dread innovation.

The failure of the proceedings against Warren Hastings, and the
strong sympathy with the French Revolution--at least in its
beginning--displayed by the Whigs and by most of those with whom Burke
had acted in politics, had an unfortunate effect on his temper. He broke
off his friendship with Fox and others of his oldest associates and
greatest admirers. He became hopeless and out of conceit with the world
around him. One might have set down some of this at least to the effect
of advancing years and declining health, if such onslaughts on
revolutionary ideas as his 'Reflections on the French Revolution' and
his 'Letters on a Regicide Peace' did not reveal the continued
possession of all the literary qualities which had made the success of
his earlier works. Their faults are literally the faults of youth: the
brilliancy of the rhetoric, the heat of the invective, the violence of
the partisanship, the reluctance to admit the existence of any
grievances in France to justify the popular onslaught on the monarchy,
the noblesse, and the Church. His one explanation of the crisis and its
attendant horrors was the instigation of the spirit of evil. The effect
on contemporary opinion was very great, and did much to stimulate the
conservative reaction in England which carried on the Napoleonic wars
and lasted down to the passage of the Reform Bill in 1832.

There were, however, other causes for the cloud which came over Burke's
later years. In spite of his great services to his party and his
towering eminence as an orator and writer, he never obtained a seat in
the Cabinet. The Paymastership of the Forces, at a salary of $20,000 a
year, was the highest reward, either in honor or money, which his party
ever bestowed on him. It is true that in those days the Whigs were very
particular in reserving high places for men of rank and family. In fact,
their government was, from the Revolution of 1688 on, a thorough
oligarchy, divided