nd Injustice--Irishmen Prominent Actors in the American Revolution--Its
Causes and Effects--Burke on Religious Toleration--Catholic
Emancipation--His Indian Policy--MOORE--His Poetry and
Patriotism--CURRAN--SWIFT--LUCAS--FLOOD--GRATTAN--EARL OF
CHARLEMONT--Irish Artists, Authors, and Actors--SHERIDAN--Scene in the
House of Lords during the Impeachment of Warren Hastings--GOLDSMITH.

[A.D. 1700-1800.]

Each century of Irish history would require a volume of its own, if the
lives of its eminent men were recorded as they should be; but the
eighteenth century may boast of a host of noble Irishmen, whose fame is
known even to those who are most indifferent to the history of that
country. It was in this century that Burke, coming forth from the Quaker
school of Ballitore, his mind strengthened by its calm discipline, his
intellect cultivated by its gifted master, preached political wisdom to
the Saxons, who were politically wise as far as they followed his
teaching, and politically unfortunate when they failed to do so. His
public career demands the most careful consideration from every
statesman who may have any higher object in view than the mere fact of
having a seat in the cabinet; nor should it be of less interest or value
to those whose intellectual capacities are such as to enable them to
grasp any higher subject than the plot of a sensational novel. It was in
this century also that Moore began to write his world-famed songs, to
amaze the learned by his descriptions of a country which he had never
seen, and to fling out those poetical hand grenades, those pasquinades
and squibs, whose rich humour and keenly-pointed satire had so much
influence on the politics of the day. It was in this century that
Sheridan, who was the first to introduce Moore to London society,
distinguished himself at once as dramatist, orator, and statesman, and
left in his life and death a terrible lesson to his nation of the
miseries and degradations consequent on indulgence in their besetting
sin. It was in this century that Steele, the bosom friend of Addison,
and his literary equal, contributed largely to the success and
popularity of the _Spectator_, the _Guardian_, and the _Tatler,_ though,
as usual, English literature takes the credit to itself of what has been
accomplished for it by Irish writers.[559]

Burke is, however, unquestionably both the prominent man of his age and
of his nation in that age; and happily we have abundant materi