The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 71, September, 1863: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and PoliticsVarious
Religion
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 71, September, 1863: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics
Various
American periodicals
But the difference was too intense. A few days later it broke forth
again. "I complain," said Burke, "of being obliged to stand upon my
defence by the right honorable gentleman, who, when a young man, was
brought to me and evinced the most promising talents, which I used my
best endeavors to cultivate; and this man, who has arrived at the
maturity of being the most brilliant and powerful debater that ever
existed, has described me as having deserted and abandoned every one of
my principles!" Fox replied, but alluded to Burke no longer as "friend",
but as "the right honorable gentleman", and said, in a taunting style,
that "all he had to do was to repent, and his friends would be ready to
receive him back and love him as they had previously done". Burke was
indignant. He said,--"I have gone through my youth without encountering
any party disgrace, and though in my age I have been so unfortunate as
to meet it, I do not solicit the right honorable gentleman's friendship,
nor that of any other man, either on one side of the House or the
other." [A] This most important and historic friendship was at an end.
[Footnote A:_Parliamentary History_ Vol. XXIX. p. 426.]
The larger part of the Whigs at that time sided with Fox. But Burke
turned away from Parliament and politicians in one of the most masterly
productions of his pen, entitled, "An Appeal from the New to the Old
Whigs." One of the autograph-letters in the collection before us,
addressed to the amanuensis, Swift, relates to the last corrections of
this tract, and contains the title, arranged for the printer. It is the
letter of which a _fac-simile_ is given by Mr. Macknight.
Meanwhile, the difference between the two statesmen became more fixed
and intense. The Whig Club declared, "that their confidence in Mr. Fox
was confirmed, strengthened, and increased by the calumnies against
him." Burke and some forty-five noblemen and gentlemen withdrew from the
club. It was then that Burke, in justification of himself and his
friends, took the pen, and drew up what his biographer Prior calls the
"famous" paper, entitled, "Observations on the Conduct of the Minority,
particularly in the Last Session of Parliament, addressed to the Duke of
Portland and Lord Fitzwilliam, 1793," which will be found in the third
volume of Bonn's edition of his Works.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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