Edmund Burke.
The history of this distinguished statesman and eloquent orator is exceedingly interesting, but it belongs to these pages to notice him only as he was a friend to American rights, and often lifted up his voice in parliament in defence of them. He was born in Dublin, 1730. His father was a respectable attorney. Burke received his education at Trinity college; on the completion of which, he studied law, but devoted himself chiefly to literature. He conducted Dodley's celebrated Annual Register for many years. In 1765, he entered into public life, being made private secretary to the Marquis of Rockingham at the time that nobleman was called to the head of the treasury. Soon after, he was elected to parliament. In 1766, he took a prominent part in a debate relative to the affairs of America, and often, afterwards, raised his voice in opposition to the arbitrary measures of the government. For a time, the affairs of America are said to have engrossed almost all his attention.
During one of the debates on American affairs, a member from Hull, by the name of Hartley, after having driven four-fifths of a very full house from the benches, by an unusually dull speech, at length requested that the riot act might be read, for the purpose of elucidating one of his propositions. Burke, who was impatient to address the house himself, immediately started up, and exclaimed: "The riot act! My dearest friend, why, in the name of every thing sacred, have the riot act read? The mob, you see, is already dispersed!" Peals of laughter followed the utterance of this comic appeal, which Lord North frequently declared to be one of the happiest instances of wit he ever heard.[53]
Burke died in 1797. Unlike many of the statesmen of his day, "his character, in private life, was almost unimpeachable." As a public speaker, his manner was bold and forcible; his delivery, vehement and unembarrassed; but, though easy, he was inelegant. His head continually oscillated, and his gesticulations were frequently violent. To the last hour of his life, his pronunciation was Hibernian. Although a great orator, he was not a skillful debater. Few men ever possessed greater strength of imagination, or a more admirable choice of words. His mind was richly stored, and he had the most perfect mastery over its treasures. Johnson said he was not only the first man in the House of Commons, but the first man every where; and, on being asked if he did not think Burke resembled Cicero, replied, "No, sir; Cicero resembled Burke."
THADDEUS KOSCIUSKO.
Thaddeus Kosciusko, a Polish officer in the American revolutionary war, was born in Lithuania, in 1756, of an ancient and noble family, and educated at the military school at Warsaw. He afterwards studied in France. He came to America, recommended, by Franklin, to General Washington, by whom he was appointed his aid. He was also appointed his engineer, with the rank of colonel, in October 1776. At the unsuccessful siege of Ninety-Six, in 1781, he very judiciously directed the operations. It was, in 1774, that he left this country, and, in 1786, he returned to Poland. In 1789, the diet gave him the appointment of major-general. In the campaign of 1792, he distinguished himself against the Russians. In 1794, the Poles again took arms, and were headed by Kosciusko; but, after several splendid battles, he was taken and thrown into prison by Catharine, but was released by Paul I. When the emperor presented him with his own sword, he declined it, saying: "I no longer need a sword, since I have no longer a country." Never afterwards did he wear a sword. In August, 1797, he visited America, and was received with honor. For his revolutionary services, he received a pension. In 1798, he went to France. Having purchased an estate near Fontainebleau, he lived there till 1814. In 1816, he settled at Soleure, in Switzerland. In 1817, he abolished slavery on his estate in Poland. He died at Soleure, in consequence of a fall with his horse from a precipice near Vevay, October 16, 1817, aged sixty-one. He was never married.
COUNT PULASKI.
Count Pulaski was a Polander by birth, who, with a few men, in 1771, carried off King Stanislaus from the middle of his capital, though surrounded with a numerous body of guards and a Russian army. The king soon escaped, and declared Pulaski an outlaw. After his arrival in this country, he offered his services to congress, and was honored with the rank of brigadier-general. He discovered the greatest intrepidity in an engagement with a party of the British near Charleston, in May, 1779. In the assault upon Savannah, October 9th, by General Lincoln and Count D'Estaing, Pulaski was wounded, at the head of two hundred horsemen, as he was galloping into the town, with the intention of charging in the rear. He died on the 11th, and congress resolved that a monument should be erected to his memory.