chery, at least until it was
relieved so far as it could be. Dr. Lawrence and Dr. King, assisted by
the affidavit of Mr. Rivington, succeeded in obtaining an injunction
against the publisher on the very day when the tract appeared. But two
thousand copies had already stolen abroad.

It was not until Mrs. Burke, on opening a letter from Dr. Lawrence to
her husband, learned that the injunction had been obtained, that, at two
o'clock in the afternoon of the 15th of February, 1797, she delivered to
him his newspapers and correspondence for the past week. He was less
disturbed than had been expected. "This affair does vex me," he said;
"but I am not in a state of health at present to be deeply vexed at
anything. Had I intended it for the public, I should have been more
exact and full. Many temperaments and explanations there would have
been, if ever I had had a notion that it should meet the public eye." He
was justly indignant at the knavish publisher, whose conduct surpassed
that of the Dublin pirates, or Edmund Curll. But he was at a loss to
know how the publisher obtained a copy. He did not suppose that the Duke
of Portland had given up his, and he remembered only "the rough and
incorrect papers" constituting the first draught, which, it seems, Dr.
Lawrence, about a year before, had paid the false Swift a guinea to
deliver back. He had forgotten the intermediate copy made by Swift and
corrected by himself.

This illicit publication, especially under such a title, was calculated
to attract attention. Its author was dying, so that it seemed to be his
last words. Pitt read it with delight, and declared it to be a model in
that style of composition. But his latest biographer says of it, that
"it may, perhaps, be regretted that Burke ever wrote the 'Observations
on the Conduct of the Minority.' It is certainly the least pleasing of
all his compositions."[A] In style, it is direct, terse, and compact,
beyond any other composition of Burke's. Perhaps, as it was not intended
for the public, he was less tempted to rhetorical indulgence. But the
manuscript now before us exhibits the minute care with which it was
executed. Here also may be traced varieties of expression, constituting
the different forms which a thought assumed, not unlike the various
drawings of Raffaelle for the same wonderful picture.

[Footnote A: Macknight, Vol. III. p. 532.]

But we must stop. It is only as a literary curiosity that we are now
dealing with