186

Edmund Burke

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:3,000.00 - 5,000.00 USD
Edmund Burke

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Auction Date:2018 Dec 05 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
ALS signed “Edm. Burke,” four pages on two adjoining sheets, 7.25 x 9, January 21, 1795. Letter to Lady Inchiquin, in part: "In explaining any of your wishes, or laying any of your Commands on me you are under no Necessity or appealing to the veneration of love which I shall always bear during the short & unhappy period of my life, to the memory of your excellent Uncle who has gone a little before me. I have long had the honour of knowing, & most sincerely loving & valuing yourself, with an affection, I might almost call parental. Of course, upon this double Title, you have a right to put what Garbs upon me you think fit. But you will allow me, just to submit to your Judgment, how far my strength is sufficient for the Object for which you wish to employ it; & to suggest to you, what I may think, a token Course. I am to tell you, that I have not made any application whatsoever to Lord Fitzwilliam, for any object, Military, Civil, Ecclesiastical, or in the Revenue, or in his Household; nor has he ever consulted me upon any part whatsoever of the arrangements in his government. Indeed I dont know why he should; or why my recommendations should have any weight with him. My connexion with him has been in nothing but very great favours conferred upon his side & returned only by grateful comments, & kind wishes on mine.

The word your Ladyship uses, of Interest, here can have no place. I am in no situation to hurt or to serve a Minister. I am a person wholly unsignificant; wholly out of the world; even for the little time this poor body, & dispirited mind seems to remain near it. Dean Palmer is himself, a man of five times the importance to an Irish D.D. & Secretary than I am; & if I had not received as many applications as if I myself had had the honours of being his Excellency's Secretary, I should have been surprised that he should think of my application [as] one. This, I think, is the two & twentieth letter I have answered on this subject. If I recommend no person to Lord Fitzwilliam, it is that I have lived to this great age, without one relation that is unprovided for, one friend, one obligation, one attachment, one dependence, one man of Merit not considered, that is come to my knowledge! I have twenty at least. Why don't I serve them? It is a long story.

Soon those, who have been, for forty years a [Burden] on my Mind, & one or two of whom I propose for very inferior things upon no inferior motives, I must go a great round about, in these little ways, to serve; & have made my sollicitation thru men of Interest in Ireland. For I have told you, I have none—but, on the contrary, must…(what I grieve for beyond measure) be as a dead weight on the publick. Dean Palmer tells me he has seven Children. I have very near & dear friends, not half so well provided for, & who have as many Children. I have many very old friends in the Church in Ireland. I cannot serve them. If Lord Fitzwilliam had asked me about his Chaplains, do you think I should not have recommended his & my friend (I may say the dearest friend I & my dear Son have had) Dr. Walker King? But I know as little of his Church arrangements as of any other part of his government. Now let me say one word of your Mode of proceeding: for I faithfully assure your Ladyship, I am not indifferent about Dean Palmer…as your Brother, & as a man whose personal abilities call for great respect. My opinion then is, that if you yourself, recalling Sir Joshua, to the D[uke] of Portland's mind should recommend that Dean would have ten times the force of any application of mine, to get his Grace to settle him on Lord Fitzwilliam whenever the Latter has his hands disengaged. I do not [do] this to shift hands. I know the D[uke] of P[ortland] & I know what I am saying." In fine condition.