enth edition inside of a year, was read
all over the continent as well as in the British Isles, and helped
materially not only to keep England steady in the crisis, but also to
incite the other powers to continue their resistance to French
aggression. He continued his campaign in _Thoughts on French Affairs_
and _Letters on a Regicide Peace_. He was given two pensions in 1794,
and would have been raised to the peerage as Lord Beaconsfield, had
not the succession to the title been cut off by the premature death
of his only son. He himself died in 1797 and was buried at
Beaconsfield, where, as far back as 1768, he had purchased a small
estate.

As an orator and a deep political thinker, Burke holds a foremost
place among those of all time who distinguished themselves in the
British parliament. His keen intellect, his powerful imagination, his
sympathy with the fallen, the downtrodden, and the oppressed, and his
matchless power of utterance of the thoughts that were in him have
made an impression that can never be effaced. His wise and
statesman-like views on questions affecting the colonies ought to
endear him to all Americans, although, if his counsels had been
hearkened to, it is probable that the separation from the mother
country would not have occurred as soon as it did. For his native
land he used his best endeavors when and how he could, and although,
as her defender, he was faced by obloquy as well as by the loss of
that parliamentary position which was as dear to him as the breath of
his nostrils, he did not flinch or shrink from supporting her
material and spiritual interests in his own generous, manly,
whole-hearted way. Trinity College, Dublin, has done well in placing
his statue at her outer gates as representing the greatest Irishman
of his generation.

A political associate of Burke's for many years was Richard Brinsley
Sheridan (1751-1816). Of Co. Cavan descent, Sheridan was born in
Dublin, and was educated partly in his native city and partly at
Harrow, and the remainder of his life was spent in England. He was
distinguished first as a playwright and afterwards as a parliamentary
orator. In 1775 his comedy, _The Rivals_, was produced at Covent
Garden Theatre; his farce, _St. Patrick's Day, or the Scheming
Lieutenant_, and his comic opera, _The Duenna_, were staged in the
same year. His greatest comedy, _The School for Scandal_, was acted
at Drury Lane Theatre in 1777, and it was followed in 1779 by _Th