There is, however, a considerable member for the greater part of which Mr. Burke’s reputation is not responsible:  this is the inquiry into the condition of the higher classes, which commences in the two hundred and ninety-fifth page.[4] The summary of the whole topic, indeed, nearly as it stands in the three hundred and seventy-third and fourth pages,[5] was found, together with a marginal reference to the Bankrupt List, in his own handwriting; and the actual conclusion of the Letter was dictated by him, but never received his subsequent correction.  He had also preserved, as materials for this branch of his subject, some scattered hints, documents, and parts of a correspondence on the state of the country.  He was, however, prevented from working on them by the want of some authentic and official information, for which he had been long anxiously waiting, in order to ascertain, to the satisfaction of the public, what, with his usual sagacity, he had fully anticipated from his own personal observation, to his own private conviction.  At length the reports of the different committees which had been appointed by the two Houses of Parliament amply furnished him with evidence for this purpose.  Accordingly he read and considered them with attention:  but for anything beyond this the season was now past.  The Supreme Disposer of All, against whose inscrutable counsels it is vain as well as impious to murmur, did not permit him to enter on the execution of the task which he meditated.  It was resolved, therefore, by one of his friends, after much hesitation, and under a very painful responsibility, to make such an attempt as he could at supplying the void; especially because the insufficiency of our resources for the continuance of the war was understood to have been the principal objection urged against the two former Letters on the Proposals for Peace.  In performing with reverential diffidence this duty of friendship, care has been taken not to attribute to Mr. Burke any sentiment which is not most explicitly known, from repeated conversations, and from much correspondence, to have been decidedly entertained by that illustrious man.  One passage of nearly three pages, containing a censure of our defensive system, is borrowed from a private letter, which he began to dictate with an intention of comprising in it the short result of his opinions, but which he afterwards abandoned, when, a little time before his death, his health appeared in some degree to amend, and he hoped that Providence might have spared him at least to complete the larger public letter, which he then proposed to resume.