I have sometimes wondered why Burke did not pursue this quiet and beautiful life,—­free from the turmoils of public contest, with leisure, and friends, and Nature, and truth,—­and prepare treatises which would have been immortal, for he was equal to anything he attempted.  But such was not to be.  He was needed in the House of Commons, then composed chiefly of fox-hunting squires and younger sons of nobles (a body as ignorant as it was aristocratic),—­the representatives not of the people but of the landed proprietors, intent on aggrandizing their families at the expense of the nation,—­and of fortunate merchants, manufacturers, and capitalists, in love with monopolies.  Such an assembly needed at that day a schoolmaster, a teacher in the principles of political economy and political wisdom; a leader in reforming disgraceful abuses; a lecturer on public duties and public wrongs; a patriot who had other views than spoils and place; a man who saw the right, and was determined to uphold it whatever the number or power of his opponents.  So Edmund Burke was sent among them,—­ambitious doubtless, stern, intellectually proud, incorruptible, independent, not disdainful of honors and influence, but eager to render public services.

It has been the great ambition of Englishmen since the Revolution to enter Parliament, not merely for political influence, but also for social position.  Only rich men, or members of great families, have found it easy to do so.  To such men a pecuniary compensation is a small affair.  Hence, members of Parliament have willingly served without pay, which custom has kept poor men of ability from aspiring to the position.  It was not easy, even for such a man as Burke, to gain admission into this aristocratic assembly.  He did not belong to a great family; he was only a man of genius, learning, and character.  The squirearchy of that age cared no more for literary fame than the Roman aristocracy did for a poet or an actor.  So Burke, ambitious and able as he was, must bide his time.

His first step in a political career was as private secretary to Gerard Hamilton, who was famous for having made but one speech, and who was chief secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, the Earl of Halifax.  Burke soon resigned his situation in disgust, since he was not willing to be a mere political tool.  But his singular abilities had attracted the attention of the prime minister, Lord Rockingham, who made him his private secretary, and secured his entrance into Parliament.  Lord Verney, for a seat in the privy council, was induced to give him a “rotten borough.”