d to the more visible conditions of social stability and the
growth of nations. This interest in the concrete phenomena of society
inspired him with the idea of the _Annual Register_ (1759), which he
designed to present a broad grouping of the chief movements of each year.
The execution was as excellent as the conception, and if we reflect that it
was begun in the midst of that momentous war which raised England to her
climax of territorial greatness in East and West, we may easily realize how
the task of describing these portentous and far-reaching events would be
likely to strengthen Burke's habits of wide and laborious observation, as
well as to give him firmness and confidence in the exercise of his own
judgment. Dodsley gave him L100 for each annual volume, and the sum was
welcome enough, for towards the end of 1756 Burke had married. His wife was
the daughter of a Dr Nugent, a physician at Bath. She is always spoken of
by his friends as a mild, reasonable and obliging person, whose amiability
and gentle sense did much to soothe the too nervous and excitable
temperament of her husband. She had been brought up, there is good reason
to believe, as a Catholic, and she was probably a member of that communion
at the time of her marriage. Dr Nugent eventually took up his residence
with his son-in-law in London, and became a popular member of that famous
group of men of letters and artists whom Boswell has made so familiar and
so dear to all later generations. Burke, however, had no intention of being
dependent. His consciousness of his own powers animated him with a most
justifiable ambition, if ever there was one, to play a part in the conduct
of national affairs. Friends shared this ambition on his behalf; one of
these was Lord Charlemont. He introduced Burke to William Gerard Hamilton
(1759), now only remembered by the nickname "single-speech," derived from
the circumstance of his having made a single brilliant speech in the House
of Commons, which was followed by years of almost unbroken silence.
Hamilton was by no means devoid of sense and acuteness, but in character he
was one of the most despicable men then alive. There is not a word too many
nor too strong in the description of him by one of Burke's friends, as "a
sullen, vain, proud, selfish, cankered-hearted, envious reptile." The
reptile's connexion, however, was for a time of considerable use to Burke.
When he was made Irish secretary, Burke accompanied him to Du