They constitute a thin volume in folio, neatly bound, having a book-mark, and arms with the name of Fillingham.  Here are four familiar autograph-letters from Burke to his amanuensis, Swift, all of them written from Margate, on the sea-shore, and bearing Burke’s frank as a member of Parliament.  According to habit with us, the frank of a member of Congress is written in the right-hand upper corner of the superscription, while the old English frank is in the left-hand lower corner.  But English law, while the privilege of franking existed, required also that the name of the place where the letter was pasted, and the day on which it was posted, written at length, should appear in the superscription.  Take, for instance, the following frank of Burke in this collection:—­

“Margate July seventeenth, 1791 “Mr Swift, “Mr Burke’s Chambers “4 Stone Buildings “Lincoln’s Inn “London.

  “Edm.  Burke.”

These letters have been recently published by Mr. Macknight, who says of them that “they show how kind and familiar Burke was to the humblest dependants with whom he was thrown into any human relationship”; they also “show the statesman, when at the height of literary fame, as busy and anxious in sending his sheets through the press, and making corrections and alterations, as any young author with his first proofs”; and he adds, “These letters seem to me quite as important, as illustrations of Burke’s private character, as those which he wrote to the Nagles in former years.”  It seems that the amanuensis to whom they were addressed had at his death other similar letters in his possession; but his wife, ignorant of their value, deliberately committed them to the names, and the four now before us are all that were saved.  Mr. Macknight adds, in a note,—­“These letters I owe to the kindness of John Fillingham, Esq., of Hoxton, who allowed me to inspect and copy the originals."[A]

[Footnote A:  Life of Burke, Vol.  III. p. 410.]

Of one of these letters there is an accurate fac-simile, which will be found in the third volume of Mr. Macknight’s elaborate biography of Burke.

But the main paper in the collection is none other than the manuscript of the “Observations on the Conduct of the Minority,” being the identical copy from which the surreptitious publication was made which disturbed the last hours of Burke.  The body of it is in the handwriting of the amanuensis to whom the familiar letters were addressed; but it shows the revision of Burke, and on several pages most minute and elaborate corrections and additions, with changes of sections.  Of one of these pages there is an accurate fac-simile in the third volume of Mr. Macknight, who says that “the manuscript was given by Swift’s sister, after his death, to the gentleman who kindly permitted him to inspect it.” [A]

[Footnote A:  Lifo of Burke, Vol.  III. p. 700.]

These manuscripts—­both the letters and the Observations—­all concern the closing period of Burke’s life, after the unhappy feud between himself and Fox, to which they directly relate.  In order to appreciate their value, we must glance at the scene by which the memorable friendship of these men was closed.