EARLY LIFE, AND FIRST WRITINGS It will soon be a hundred and twenty years since Burke first took his seat, in the House of Commons, and it is eighty-five years since his voice ceased to be heard there.

Since his death, as during his life, opinion as to the place to which he is entitled among the eminent men of his country has touched every extreme.

Tories have extolled him as the saviour of Europe.

Whigs have detested him as the destroyer of his party.

One undiscriminating panegyrist calls him the most profound and comprehensive of political philosophers that has yet existed in the world.