Dodsley, the bookseller of Pall Mall, provided the sinews of war, and he gave Burke a hundred pounds a year for his survey of the great events which were then passing in the world.

The scheme was probably born of the circumstances of the hour, for this was the climax of the Seven Years' War.

The clang of arms was heard in every quarter of the globe, and in East and West new lands were being brought under the dominion of Great Britain.
In this exciting crisis of national affairs, Burke began to be acquainted with public men.

In 1759 he was introduced, probably by Lord Charlemont, to William Gerard Hamilton, who only survives in our memories by his nickname of Single-speech.

As a matter of fact, he made many speeches in Parliament, and some good ones, but none so good as the first, delivered in a debate in 1755, in which Pitt, Fox, Grenville, and Murray all took part, and were all outshone by the new luminary.