Edmnnd Burke, an English statesman, born in Dublin, Jan. 1, 1730, died at Beaconsfield, England, July 9, 1797. He was one of 14 or 15 children of Richard Burke, an attorney, descended from the Norman De Burghs who early settled in Ireland. His mother was of the ancient Irish family of Nagle, of Castletown Roche, county of Cork, and a grand-niece of Ellen Nagle, the wife of the eldest son of the poet Spenser. He entered Trinity college, Dublin, as a pensioner in 1744, Oliver Goldsmith being a fellow student. He took his bachelor's degree in 1748, and in 1750 went to London, where he had previously been entered as a law student of the Middle Temple. But he abandoned the law, and after an unsuccessful application for the chair of logic in the university of Glasgow, devoted himself to literary labors. His father made ample allowance for his maintenance, and there seems to be no foundation for the report of his having been at that time without any resources excepting his pen. He contributed political articles to the periodical press, but his first separate production, "A Vindication of Natural Society," purporting to have been written by " a late noble writer," did not appear till 1756 (new ed., 1765), and was ascribed to Bolingbroke, whose style was admirably imitated, although it was written with a brilliancy and fervor to which Bolingbroke never attained.

The " Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful" (1756), written when Burke was in his 27th year, secured for him the regard of Johnson, Reynolds, and other eminent men, and placed him at the head of the sesthetical critics of his day. In 1757 he visited Bath for the improvement of his health, and lived in the house of his physician and remote kinsman, Dr. Christopher Nugent, whose daughter Jane Mary he married the same year. Speaking of her he long afterward said, "Every care vanished the moment I entered under my own roof." She bore him two sons, one of whom died in infancy, and the other, Richard, in 1794. After his return to London appeared "An Account of the European Settlements in America" (2 vols., London, 1757). Burke's autograph receipt for 50 guineas to Dodsley, the publisher of this work, is still extant, and internal evidence indicates him as the author, although doubts have been expressed on the subject, and it is not included in the common editions of his works. The abbe Raynal made use of it in his work on the American revolution, and Du-gald Stewart and Prior praise it highly.

He directed for many years the "Annual Register," established by Dodsley in 1759. Previous to this he had commenced for that publisher an " Essay toward an Abridgment of the English History " (London, 1757), bringing the narrative down to the time of King John. The reason for its discontinuance is not known. About this time Burke was introduced by the earl of Charlemont to "William Gerard Hamilton, popularly known as Single-Speech Hamilton, secretary to Lord Halifax, the newly appointed lord lieutenant of Ireland. In 17G1 he became Hamilton's private secretary, and in 1763 received a pension of £300. Hamilton had been instrumental in procuring this pension, and conceived that he had thereby bound the recipient to him for life. Burke therefore resigned the secretaryship and threw up the pension, which he had enjoyed only a year. Upon the fall of the Grenville administration in 1765, the marquis of Rockingham, the new prime minister, appointed Burke his private secretary, and he was soon afterward returned to parliament for Wendover, Buckinghamshire, a borough belonging to Lord Verney. The very day he took his seat, Jan. 14, 1766, he made remarks on the address of thanks to the throne in a strain of eloquence which attracted the attention of Pitt, afterward earl of Chatham. He speedily became the animating spirit of the Rockingham administration, and in the stormy debates relating to the American stamp act he was the most effective in urging moderate and conciliatory measures.

Out of the house, as well as in it, his industry was indefatigable, while his knowledge of colonial affairs was exceedingly useful. On the dissolution of the Rockingham administration in July, 1766, Burke published anonymously "A Short Account of a late Short Administration," in which he vigorously defended the policy of the whigs. In the compromise cabinet which Lord Chatham undertook to form he was offered a place, which he declined, as he did a similar offer on the part of the duke of Grafton in 1767. The parliament was dissolved in 1768, when Burke was again returned for Wendover. About the same time he purchased for £20,000 a fine estate near Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire; a part of the purchase money having been advanced, at first as a loan, and afterward as a gift, by the marquis of Rockingham. In 1769 Burke published his " Observations on a late Publication, entitled ' The Present State of the Nation '" (5th ed., 1782), which latter was ascribed to Mr. Grenville or to his former secretary, Mr. Knox, and in 1770 his celebrated "Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents." In November, 1771, he was appointed agent of New York to represent the interests of that colony in England, for which he received a salary of £700. During the sessions of 1772-3 he distinguished himself by his masterly and elaborate reviews of the affairs of the East India company.

Still more did he distinguish himself during the next session, 1774, on the state of the American colonies, then driven almost into insurrection by the course of the English government. His great speech on American taxation was delivered on April 19 of that year. On the dissolution of the parliament he was nominated for the city of Bristol, for which he was returned on Nov. 3, after a severe contest of 27 days. On March 22, 1775, he delivered another remarkable speech in behalf of the Americans, which he subsequently published. His zealous support of the colonies rendered him unpopular with his constituents, and he was compelled to defend himself in "Two Letters to Gentlemen of Bristol." All the while the questions of the Catholic disabilities and of the trade with Ireland occupied a large share of his attention. On Feb. 11, 1780, he introduced his celebrated bills for regulating the household, the army, navy, and pension pay offices, ordnance, the mint, the exchequer, etc.; these he commended in a speech on "Economical Reform," which is almost without a parallel in the records of parliamentary eloquence.

But his talents did not reconcile the electors of Bristol to his politics, and declining a reelection, he was returned for Malton, which borough he continued to represent during the remainder of his public career. The Rockingham party again coming into power in March, 1782, Burke became a privy councillor and paymaster general of the forces; but, not possessing an aristocratic family connection, he was not allowed a seat in the cabinet. No office in the gift of the government was more lucrative than that of paymaster; yet Burke's first act was to introduce a bill for its reorganization, which materially lessened his own emoluments. In that department alone he was said to have effected an annual saving of £47,000. On the death of the marquis of Rockingham, Burke retired for a time; but the ministry of the duke of Portland in 1783 restored him to his former place. In that year he began his labors on East Indian affairs, with his voluminous reports on the administration of justice in Bengal and other provinces; and for several years he was absorbed in the investigations and trials which arose out of the subject.

During this time he conducted the impeachment of Warren Hastings for maladministration of the government of India. His great speech, shortly after the opening of the session of 1786, on presenting the articles of impeachment, is a masterpiece of eloquence. He regarded this impeachment as the crowning act, and destined to be the glory or shame, of his public life. It is now acknowledged to have been its crowning glory. When the French revolution broke out, Burke undertook to oppose its principles and influence. In 1790 appeared his' "Reflections on the Revolution of France," a letter to a French gentleman, of which 30,000 copies were at once sold, and which was translated into French by Dupont. It was an eloquent' production, and gave rise to many sharp controversies, leading to an open rupture with Fox, who had been associated with him in the impeachment of Hastings, and was now the whig leader in the house of commons. Their formal separation was an affecting scene. Fox paid a warm tribute to the character and genius of his old friend, now his opponent.

Burke was henceforth isolated from his former political friends, but continued his activity, publishing his "Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs " (1791), " Letters to Sir Hercules Lan-grishe " (1792), " Thoughts on French Affairs," " Remarks on the Policy of the Allies " (1793), and many other pamphlets. He retired from the house of commons June 20, 1794. In the following August he was deeply affected by the death of Richard Burke, his only surviving son, but he still retained his cheerfulness and activity. In 1795 he received a pension of £1,200 from the civil list, and soon after another of £2,500 from the 4 1/2 per cent. fund. In his retirement his pen was still busy, and in a " Letter to a Noble Lord," and " Two Letters on the Proposal for a Regicide Peace," he showed all his original power. Not long before his death he founded a school for the children of French emigrants. He retained his faculties to the last, and had Addison's essay on the immortality of the soul read to him on his deathbed. Mr. Fox, in proposing his interment in Westminster abbey, drew tears from almost every one present in the house of commons. Burke's genius has been extolled by Sir Robert Peel, Earl Russell, and other eminent men.

Macaulay regarded him, in aptitude of comprehension and richness of imagination, as above every orator, ancient or modern; and Wilhelm von Schlegel in his " Lectures on Literature" awards him high praise for having been to England and to all Europe, and especially to Germany, a new light of political wisdom and moral experience. His conversational power was as remarkable as were his oratorical efforts and his written works. The authorship of the letters of Junius was at one time ascribed to Burke, and it was at all events believed that he knew who the author was, but he never made any disclosures on the subject. - The present representative of the family of Burke is his grand-nephew Thomas Haviland Burke, a London lawyer, and son of Lieut. Col. Thomao Haviland by Mary French, a daughter of Burke's sister Juliana. - Earl Fitzwilliam, in conjunction with Lieut. Gen. Sir Richard Bourke, a relative of Burke, edited the correspondence of Edmund Burke, 1744 - '97 (4 vols., London, 1826-'44), reprinted in the new edition of Burke's works and correspondence (8 vols., 1852). James Prior wrote "Memoirs of the Life and Character of Burke " (2 vols., London, 1824); the Rev. George Croly, " Memoir of the Political Life of the Right Hon. Edmund Burke " (2 vols., 1840); Peter Burke, " The Public and Domestic Life of Edmund Burke " (1853); and Thomas Macknight, the "Life and Times of Burke " (3 vols., 1858-'61). An excellent edition of his works, edited by George Nichols, was published at Boston in 1865-'7, 12 vols. 8vo (12 vols. 16mo, 1869).