Edmund Burke was born at Dublin on the first of January, 1730. His
father was an attorney, who had fifteen children, of whom all but four
died in their youth. Edmund, the second son, being of delicate health in
his childhood, was taught at home and at his grandfather's house in the
country before he was sent with his two brothers Garrett and Richard to a
school at Ballitore, under Abraham Shackleton, a member of the Society of
Friends. For nearly forty years afterwards Burke paid an annual visit to
Ballitore.
In 1744, after leaving school, Burke entered Trinity College, Dublin. He
graduated B.A. in 1748; M.A., 1751. In 1750 he came to London, to the
Middle Temple. In 1756 Burke became known as a writer, by two pieces.
One was a pamphlet called "A Vindication of Natural Society." This was
an ironical piece, reducing to absurdity those theories of the excellence
of uncivilised humanity which were gathering strength in France, and had
been favoured in the philosophical works of Bolingbroke, then lately
published. Burke's other work published in 1756, was his "Essay on the
Sublime and Beautiful."
At this time Burke's health broke down. He was cared for in the house of
a kindly physician, Dr. Nugent, and the result was that in the spring of
1757 he married Dr. Nugent's daughter. In the following year Burke made
Samuel Johnson's acquaintance, and acquaintance ripened fast into close
friendship. In 1758, also, a son was born; and, as a way of adding to
his income, Burke suggested the plan of "The Annual Register."
In 1761 Burke became private secretary to William Gerard Hamilton, who
was then appointed Chief Secretary to Ireland. In April, 1763, Burke's
services were recognised by a pension of 300 pounds a year; but he threw
this up in April, 1765, when he found that his services were considered
to have been not only recognised, but also bought. On the 10th of July
in that year (1765) Lord Rockingham became Premier, and a week later
Burke, through the good offices of an admiring friend who had come to
know him in the newly-founded Turk's Head Club, became Rockingham's
private secretary. He was now the mainstay, if not the inspirer, of
Rockingham's policy of pacific compromise in the vexed questions between
England and the American colonies. Burke's elder brother, who had lately
succeeded to his father's property, died also in 1765, and Burke sold the
estate in Cork for 4,000 pounds.
Having become private secretary to Lord Rockingham, Burke entered
Parliament as member for Wendover, and promptly took his place among the
leading speakers in the House.
On the 30th of July, 1766, the Rockingham Ministry went out, and Burke
wrote a defence of its policy in "A Short Account of a late Short
Administration." In 1768 Burke bought for 23,000 pounds an estate called
Gregories or Butler's Court, about a mile from Beaconsfield. He called
it by the more territorial name of Beaconsfield, and made it his home.
Burke's endeavours to stay the policy that was driving the American
colonies to revolution, caused the State of New York, in 1771, to
nominate him as its agent. About May, 1769, Edmund Burke began the
pamphlet here given, _Thoughts on the Present Discontents_. It was
published in 1770, and four editions of it were issued before the end of
the year. It was directed chiefly against Court influence, that had
first been used successfully against the Rockingham Ministry. Allegiance
to Rockingham caused Burke to write the pamphlet, but he based his
argument upon essentials of his own faith as a statesman. It was the
beginning of the larger utterance of his political mind.
Court influence was strengthened in those days by the large number of
newly-rich men, who bought their way into the House of Commons for
personal reasons and could easily be attached to the King's party. In a
population of 8,000,000 there were then but 160,000 electors, mostly
nominal. The great land-owners generally held the counties. When two
great houses disputed the county of York, the election lasted fourteen
days, and the costs, chiefly in bribery, were said to have reached three
hundred thousand pounds. Many seats in Parliament were regarded as
hereditary possessions, which could be let at rental, or to which the
nominations could be sold. Town corporations often let, to the highest
bidders, seats in Parliament, for the benefit of the town funds. The
election of John Wilkes for Middlesex, in 1768, was taken as a triumph of
the people. The King and his ministers then brought the House of Commons
into conflict with the freeholders of Westminster. Discontent became
active and general. "Junius" began, in his letters, to attack boldly the
King's friends, and into the midst of the discontent was thrown a message
from the Crown asking for half a million, to make good a shortcoming in
the Civil List. Men asked in vain what had been done with the lost
money. Confusion at home was increased by the great conflict with the
American colonies; discontents, ever present, were colonial as well as
home. In such a time Burke endeavoured to show by what pilotage he would
have men weather the storm.