his attendants, and describing the stings of conscience that afflicted him during that horrid work, speaks thus to his wife:

(Lady.)

Methought I heard a voice cry, 'Sleep no more!
Macbeth doth murther sleep,' the innocent sleep;
Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care,
The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,
Chief nourisher in life's feast-

What do you mean?

Macbeth. Still it cried- Sleep no more'! to all the house;

'Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor,
Shall sleep no more; Macbeth shall sleep no more!'

I was not in Cork; so you may judge I had not the pleasure of seeing my friend Sisson. Farewell! I write the rest to my brother,

Dear Brother,

E. B.

We arrived in this country after a tedious journey of six days in the worst weather in the world; but I have the satisfaction to acquaint you that my mother is greatly recovered. She rides out every day, and will, I hope, soon be perfectly well, as are all your friends here, who enquired very kindly for you. I have a piece of news for you and your sister; Miss Polly Hennessy has been married this fortnight to a gentleman of Cork. I have not yet seen that family. My mother desires her blessing to you, and all your friends here their compliments. I am your affectionate brother,

EDMUND BURKE.

E. Burke to R. Shackleton.

Dear Dick,

August 19th, 1746.

I confess our correspondence has of late been a little upon the stand, and I as freely own through my fault, for it can't be denied that you wrote last, I beg however, that we may renew it with as much alacrity as before, for I am now pretty well got over an indolence which has of late possessed me to that degree that I have been lost to myself and to all my friends. A bad excuse I know this; but I had far rather you should think me lazy than ill-natured. I shall say no more on this head now, because I know too minute an enquiry into it will be but little to my credit; only like a good child-I shall do so

no more.

Believe me my dear Dick I could not think my time spent so agreeably and profitably as in your company; but there are so many invincible obstacles in my way, that I cannot think of it, at least yet a while. I am now just after examination, and in less than a month others far greater are to succeed than ever I had1. My time is very short, and my business very great; yet notwithstanding, I would be very willing to forfeit whatever

1 The Little-go Examination in Michaelmas term.

profit might accrue from them for the sake of spending a week or two with you, did not some disgrace and some anger perhaps, from a certain quarter1, attend it.

Your father's watch will be sent by Dick, who will be with you in a few days. He desires to be remembered to you. Greek is a plant that thrives as ill in Dublin as in Munster, and the soil is as unpropitious to Latin.

I hope by this time you have pretty well got over your troubles; as for me I am in statu quo.

I spend most of my idle time with Sisson; he has a great regard for you, and I assure you I like him as well, if not better, than ever, notwithstanding some appearances, which a thinking man should never judge from. I have the pleasure too to inform you that he has of late no despicable share of business. He has now in hands, and finished almost, the Speaker and his family, the Lord and Lady Ikerrin etc. I think it is a pity that so good a painter has not better encouragement. Your last was very laconick; I hope this2 shall have as much honour as the famous queen (I forget whom) in making you lengthen your sentences. Believe me to be yours

E. BURKE.

Exceptional advantages were enjoyed by young men educated in Trinity College in the Georgian period. Then as now they mixed in Dublin society. That society was intellectual and brilliant, and not lacking in social distinction. Nobles and commoners patronized art. The greatest actors appeared on the Irish stage, and the greatest musicians and singers performed before Dublin audiences. Handel was not the only eminent genius who discovered in Dublin an appreciation which he had not found in London. Though much in the Dublin society of the time seems coarse, reckless, uncongenial, and even ferocious to our ideas, yet its atmosphere was keen, bracing and invigorating, and it must, notwithstanding his depreciatory remarks upon the prevailing neglect of literature, have greatly stimulated the receptive mind of young Edmund Burke. We shall see how he frequented the theatre-associated with Thomas Sheridan-met most of the brilliant actors of the day, and even made adventures— himself and his friends-in dramatic authorship. So, too, we find him delighting in a painter's companionship—and evincing that love of art and eagerness to assist the artist, which anticipates that friendship with Barry and Barrett which helped them on to eminence, and that friendship with Sir Joshua Reynolds—a share in which the world enjoys through the pages of Boswell.

1. His father.

2 "This" refers to the signature which in the original MS. in the possession of Dr ffennel, is spread out nearly across the page.

Sisson1, to whom he so often refers, was then a young artist. He gained reputation as a portrait painter, and his name is found in the catalogue of the Society of Artists in Ireland as exhibiting three portraits in oil at the first exhibition of paintings held in Ireland, on 12th February, 17652.

Burke did not forget Sisson in later times. Mrs Leadbeater writes 3:

Edmund brought a painter with him at one time, Richard Sisson, a man of talent, and prevailed on my dear Father to sit for his picture; he consented, though it was against his judgment, as not consonant to the practice of our Society. Probably for this reason an expression of uneasiness appears on the portrait, although it is otherwise a good likeness. The portrait of his old master, Abraham Shackleton, was also longed for by his illustrious pupil, but he durst not request it*.

The Speaker who had commissioned Sisson to paint him and his family was Henry Boyle who was Speaker of the Irish House of Commons from 4th October, 1743, to 26th April, 1756, when he was created Earl of Shannon.

He was for a long time (Lecky writes) one of the most considerable men of the Kingdom. He had sat in Parliament for forty years, and was treated with great deference by Chesterfield, Devonshire, and Harrington, and was connected with some of the chief governing families in Ireland. He possessed much borough interest, and no small amount of parliamentary talent.

The story of his struggle for power with Stone the Primate which had important constitutional consequences in the history of the Irish Parliament-in creating for the first time a serious parliamentary opposition, and bringing forward the constitutional contest between the Crown and the British ministry, and the Irish Parliament, in reference to the appropriation of surplus Irish revenue, is told by Lecky and Froude5.

1 Cp. Strickland, A Dictionary of Irish Artists, Mansell and Co., Dublin, 1912. "Richard Sisson (d. 1767) belonged to a Dublin family that had a linen manufactory at Lucan. He was a schoolfellow of Edmund Burke at Ballitore (?), and had been apprenticed to Francis Bindon, the portrait painter. In Paris he and Burke lived together for some time. He painted a miniature of Burke. He died in 1767 leaving a widow and son in poor circumstances. Burke provided for the son."

2 See the catalogue in Gilbert's History of Dublin, vol. 111, p. 365.

3 Leadbeater Papers, vol. 1, p. 49.

• Sisson's portrait of Richard Shackleton is now in the possession of Dr W. W. Shackleton of Bushey, Hertfordshire.

5 See Lecky, History of Ireland, vol. 1, chap. 11. Also Froude, The English in Ireland, vol. 1, chap. IV and vol. II, chap. 1. Litton Falkiner, Essays Relating to Ireland. Archbishop Stone.