est
dependants with whom he was thrown into any human relationship"; they
also "show the statesman, when at the height of literary fame, as busy
and anxious in sending his sheets through the press, and making
corrections and alterations, as any young author with his first proofs";
and he adds, "These letters seem to me quite as important, as
illustrations of Burke's private character, as those which he wrote to
the Nagles in former years." It seems that the amanuensis to whom they
were addressed had at his death other similar letters in his possession;
but his wife, ignorant of their value, deliberately committed them to
the names, and the four now before us are all that were saved. Mr.
Macknight adds, in a note,--"These letters I owe to the kindness of John
Fillingham, Esq., of Hoxton, who allowed me to inspect and copy the
originals."[A]

[Footnote A: _Life of Burke_, Vol. III. p. 410.]

Of one of these letters there is an accurate _fac-simile_, which will be
found in the third volume of Mr. Macknight's elaborate biography of
Burke.

But the main paper in the collection is none other than the manuscript
of the "Observations on the Conduct of the Minority," being the
_identical copy_ from which the surreptitious publication was made which
disturbed the last hours of Burke. The body of it is in the handwriting
of the amanuensis to whom the familiar letters were addressed; but it
shows the revision of Burke, and on several pages most minute and
elaborate corrections and additions, with changes of sections. Of one of
these pages there is an accurate _fac-simile_ in the third volume of Mr.
Macknight, who says that "the manuscript was given by Swift's sister,
after his death, to the gentleman who kindly permitted him to inspect
it." [A]

[Footnote A: _Lifo of Burke_, Vol. III. p. 700.]

These manuscripts--both the letters and the Observations--all concern
the closing period of Burke's life, after the unhappy feud between
himself and Fox, to which they directly relate. In order to appreciate
their value, we must glance at the scene by which the memorable
friendship of these men was closed.

Few political events in English history are read with more interest than
the separation of Burke and Fox. They had been friends and allies; but
the French Revolution, which separated so many persons in France,
reached across the Channel to separate them. They differed so radically
with regard to this portentous, undeveloped moveme