masterly
productions of his pen, entitled, "An Appeal from the New to the Old
Whigs." One of the autograph-letters in the collection before us,
addressed to the amanuensis, Swift, relates to the last corrections of
this tract, and contains the title, arranged for the printer. It is the
letter of which a _fac-simile_ is given by Mr. Macknight.

Meanwhile, the difference between the two statesmen became more fixed
and intense. The Whig Club declared, "that their confidence in Mr. Fox
was confirmed, strengthened, and increased by the calumnies against
him." Burke and some forty-five noblemen and gentlemen withdrew from the
club. It was then that Burke, in justification of himself and his
friends, took the pen, and drew up what his biographer Prior calls the
"famous" paper, entitled, "Observations on the Conduct of the Minority,
particularly in the Last Session of Parliament, addressed to the Duke of
Portland and Lord Fitzwilliam, 1793," which will be found in the third
volume of Bonn's edition of his Works.

This paper presents, in fifty-four articles, duly numbered, objections
to the course and policy of Fox. It was, in brief, an arraignment of
that distinguished gentleman. But it was not intended for publication,
at least at that time. It was transmitted to the Duke of Portland, with
a letter, asking that it might not even be read at once, but that the
Duke would keep it locked in the drawer of his library-table, and when a
day of compulsory reflection came, then be pleased to turn to it.
Communicated thus in confidence, it might have remained indefinitely, if
not always, unknown to the public, locked in the ducal drawer, if the
amanuensis whom Burke employed in copying it had not betrayed him. This
was none other than Swift, to whom the familiar letters were addressed.
Unknown to his employer, he had appropriated to himself a copy in his
own handwriting, with corrections and additions by Burke, which seems to
have come between the original rough draught and the final copy
transmitted to the Duke of Portland. Some time afterwards, while Burke
was in his last illness, feeble and failing fast, this faithless
scrivener communicated this copy to an equally faithless publisher, by
whom it was advertised as "Fifty-Four Articles of Impeachment against
the Eight Honorable C.J. Fox." When this was seen by Mrs. Burke, she
felt it her duty to keep all newspapers and letters from her husband,
that he might know nothing of the trea