It is believed to have been a history of England, of which, as I have said, a fragment remains.
Whatever the work may have been, it was an offence to Hamilton.

With an irrational stubbornness, that may well astound us when we think of the noble genius that he thus wished to confine to paltry personal duties, he persisted that Burke should bind himself to his service for life, and to the exclusion of other interests.

"To circumscribe my hopes," cried Burke, "to give up even the possibility of liberty, to annihilate myself for ever!" He threw up the pension, which he had held for two years, and declined all further connection with Hamilton, whom he roundly described as an infamous scoundrel.

"Six of the best years of my life he took me from every pursuit of my literary reputation, or of improvement of my fortune....

In all this time you may easily conceive how much I felt at seeing myself left behind by almost all of my contemporaries.