Henceforth Burke could only watch in impotence the blunders of Government, and the disasters that befell the national arms.

But his protests against the war will last as long as our literature.
Of all Burke's writings none are so fit to secure unqualified and unanimous admiration as the three pieces on this momentous struggle:--the Speech on American Taxation (April 19, 1774); the Speech on Conciliation with America (March 22, 1775); and the Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol (1777).

Together they hardly exceed the compass of the little volume which the reader now has in his hands.

It is no exaggeration to say that they compose the most perfect manual in our literature, or in any literature, for one who approaches the study of public affairs, whether for knowledge or for practice.

They are an example without fault of all the qualities which the critic, whether a theorist or an actor, of great political situations should strive by night and by day to possess.