al for
forming a correct estimate of his character and his works. Burke was
born in Dublin, on the 1st of January, 1730. His father was an attorney
in good business, and of course a Protestant, as at that period none,
except those who professed the religion of a small minority, were
permitted to govern the vast majority, or to avail themselves of any
kind of temporal advancement. The mother of the future statesman was a
Miss Nagle, of Mallow, a descendant of whose family became afterwards
very famous as the foundress of a religious order.[560] The family
estate was at Castletown-Roche, in the vicinity of Doneraile; this
property descended to Garrett, Edmund's elder brother. A famous school
had been founded by a member of the Society of Friends at Ballitore, and
thither young Burke and his brother were sent for their education The
boys arrived there on the 26th May, 1741. A warm friendship soon sprang
up between Edmund and Richard Shackleton, the son of his master, a
friendship which only terminated with death. We have happily the most
ample details of Burke's school-days in the _Annals of Ballitore_, a
work of more than ordinary interest written by Mrs. Leadbeater, the
daughter of Burke's special friend. His native talent was soon developed
under the care of his excellent master, and there can be little doubt
that the tolerant ideas of his after life were learned, or at least
cultivated, at the Quaker school.

One instance of the early development of his talent for humour, and
another of his keen sense of injustice, must find record here. The
entrance of the judges to the county town of Athy was a spectacle which
had naturally special attraction for the boys. All were permitted to go,
but on condition that each of the senior pupils should write a
description of what he had seen in Latin verse. Burke's task was soon
accomplished--not so that of another hapless youth, whose ideas and
Latinity were probably on a par. When he had implored the help of his
more gifted companion, Edmund determined at least that he should
contribute an idea for his theme, but for all reply as to what he had
noticed in particular on the festal occasion, he only answered, "A fat
piper in a brown coat." However Burke's ideas of "the sublime" may have
predominated, his idea of the ludicrous was at this time uppermost; and
in a few moments a poem was composed, the first line of which only has
been preserved--

"Piper erat fattus, qui brownum t