Notices to Correspondents [471]
[List of Notes & Queries volumes and pages]
Notes.
EDMUND BURKE, AND THE "ANNUAL REGISTER."
That Burke wrote the Annual Registers for Dodsley for some period after its commencement is well known, but no one has yet distinctly stated when his participation in that work ceased. Mr. Prior, in his Life of Burke, places in his list of his writings: "Annual Register, at first the whole work, afterwards only the Historical Article, 1758," &c. He also states that "many of the sketches of contemporary history were written from his immediate dictation for about thirty years," and that "latterly a Mr. Ireland wrote much of it under Mr. Burke's immediate direction." (Life, vol. i. p. 85. edit. 1826.)
In proof of this statement, a fac-simile is given of Burke's receipts to Dodsley for two sums of 50l. each "for the Annual Register of 1761," the originals of which were in Upcott's collection. At the sale of Mr. Wilks's autographs this month, I observe there was another receipt for writing the Annual Register for 1763. I am not aware whether any other receipts from Burke are in existence for the money paid to him for his contributions to this periodical, but for the Annual Registers beginning with 1767, and terminating in 1791, I have the receipts of Thomas English, who appears to have received from Dodsley, first 140l., and subsequently 150l. annually, for writing and compiling the historical portion of the work. Burke's connexion with the publication must therefore have lasted a much shorter period than Mr. Prior appears to have supposed, and apparently was not continued beyond seven or eight years, from 1758 to 1766, after which year, English seems to have taken his place.
Everything relating to Burke is of importance; and if any of your correspondents can afford any further assistance in defining as correctly as possible the limits of his participation in the Annual Register, I feel assured that the information will be gladly received by your readers.
I have not seen it noticed, that the historical articles in the Annual Registers, from 1758 to 1762 inclusive, were collected in an 8vo. vol. under the title of—
"A compleat History of the late War, or Annual Register of its Rise, Progress, and Events in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, &c." London, 1763.
This work went through more than one edition. My copy, containing 559 pages, is a Dublin edition of the date of 1763, printed by John Exshaw.