Abraham Shackleton has the melancholy satisfaction of perusing dear Edmund Burke's account of his poor state of health. He hopes (trusts) that a quiet resting place is prepared for him. The memory of E. Burke's philanthropic virtues will out-live the period when his shining political talents will cease to act. New fashions of political sentiment will exist; but philanthropy,--_immortale manet!_ TO GEORGE CRABBE _She writes to remind him_ Ballitore, 7th of Eleventh-month, 1816. I believe it will surprise George Crabbe to receive a letter from an entire stranger, whom most probably he does not remember to have ever seen or heard of, but who cannot forget having met him at the house of Edmund Burke, Charles Street, James's Square, in the year 1784. I was brought thither by my father, Richard Shackleton, the friend from their childhood of Edmund Burke. My dear father told thee that Goldsmith's would now be the _deserted village_; perhaps thou dost not remember this compliment, but I remember the ingenuous modesty which disclaimed it. He admired '_The Village', 'The Library_,' and '_The Newspaper_' exceedingly, and the delight with which he read them to his family could not but be acceptable to the author, had he known the sound judgement and the exquisite taste which that excellent man possessed. But he saw no more of the productions of the Muse he admired; whose originality was not the least charm. He is dead--the friend whom he loved and honoured, and to whose character thou dost so much justice in the preface to '_The Parish_ _Register_', is also gone to the house appointed for all living. A splendid constellation of poets arose in the literary horizon; I looked around for Crabbe. Why does not he, who shines as brightly as any of these, add his lustre? I had not long thought thus when, in an Edinburgh Review, I met with reflections similar to my own, which introduced '_The Parish Register_'. Oh, it was like the voice of a long-lost friend, and glad was I to hear that voice again in '_The Borough_'!--still more in '_The Tales_,' which appear to me excelling all that preceded them! Every work is so much in unison with our own feelings, that a wish for information concerning them and their author is strongly excited.