army. When the courts were re-established, he re- sumed his office, and in 1785 was appointed one of three commissioners to form a digest of the state law. He was outspoken in the state convention against the federal constitution, because he feared consolidated power, but after its adoption was elected to the 1st congress. He served from 4 March, 1789, until he resigned in 1791, the South Carolina legislature having passed a law prohibit- ing any state judge from leaving the state. Judge Burke was for several years a member of the as- sembly, and just before his death became chancellor of the state. He published a pamphlet against the Society of the Cincinnati, which became famous, and caused that body to abandon some of the aristocratic provisions formerly in its constitution. The pamphlet was translated into French by Mi- rabeau, and used by him in the assembly. Judge Burke had a plentiful fund of Irish wit, and many stories are told of him ; but, though eccentric, he was an u])right and earnest republican.
BURKE, Edmund, English statesman, b. in
Dublin, 1 Jan., 1730; d. in Beaconsfield, England,
9 July, 1797. He was the son of a Dublin attorney,
was graduated at Trinity college in 1748, studied
law, and, going to London, wrote political
articles for newspapers there. In 1755 he was offered
a government place in America, and was anxious
to take it, but was deterred by his father's opposition.
He published in 1756 his “Vindication of
Natural Society” and the essay on “The Sublime
and Beautiful,” in 1757 “An Account of the
European Settlements in America,” and in 1758-'9
established, with Dodsley, “The Annual Register.”
In 1761-'5 he was the friend and adviser of William
Gerard Hamilton, secretary to the lord-lieutenant
of Ireland, and in 1765-'6 was secretary to the
prime-minister, Rockingham, and entered parliament
14 Jan., 1766. He took an active part in the
discussion of American questions, and proved
himself an able and eloquent speaker. His thorough
acquaintance with American affairs was rewarded,
in November, 1771, by the appointment of agent
for the colony of New York. On 19 April, 1774,
he made a speech on American taxation, considered
by many as the greatest effort of oratory ever
heard in the house of commons. His speech of 22
March, 1775, recommending conciliatory measures
toward the colonies, also excited general admiration.
His earnestness in espousing the cause of
the colonists displeased his constituents, and he
defended his course in two able “Letters to Gentlemen
of Bristol.” At the opening of the November
session of parliament in 1781, Burke ridiculed the
king's speech, which, in spite of Cornwallis's
surrender, insisted on the rights of the crown in America.
He compared the ministry to men who would
shear a wolf, and in the next year the combined
attacks of Fox and himself on the conduct of the
war, forced North to retire. During Rockingham's
brief administration in 1782, Burke was a privy
councillor and paymaster of the forces, a place he
also held under the coalition ministry in 1783. He
took a prominent part in the affairs of India, and,
in January, 1786, began the prosecution of Warren
Hastings. His speech on the opening of Hastings's
trial, 10 Feb., 1788, was worthy of the occasion and
of his great reputation. Though the impeachment
of Hastings was not carried, the herculean labors
of Burke in behalf of India were not fruitless. In
November, 1790, he published his great work in
opposition to the French revolution, entitled
“Reflections on the Revolution in France.” On 6 May,
1791, an open rupture took place between Burke
and Fox, who accused him of abandoning the
principles of his party. Burke vindicated himself
in his “Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs.”
In 1796 he wrote his “Letter to a Noble Lord,” one
of the most successful and popular of all his
productions. The best edition of his works is that
edited by George Nichols (12 vols., Boston, 1865-'7).
BURKE, John Edmund, clergyman, b. in
Brooklyn, N. Y., 22 Jan., 1852. He 'attended St.
Francis Xavier's college in New York, and studied
for the priesthood at Mount St. Mary's seminary,
Emmetsburg, Md., and at the American college in
Rome, where he was ordained a priest on 4 Aug.,
1878. On his return to the United States he be-
came pastor of the church of the Epiphany, New
York. Becoming deeply interested in the spiritual
condition of the colored Roman Catholics of that
city, and realizhig their great need of church accom-
modation, he, in 1878, voluntarily resigned his pas-
toral charge to devote himself to supplying this
want of the colored Roman Catholics. On 4 Oct.,
1883, the property of the 3d Universalist church
society, on the southeast corner of Bleecker and
Downing streets, was purchased by James Clyne
for Father Richard L. Burtsell, of the church of the
Epiphany, and on 18 November of that year the
church was re-dedicated as the church of St. Bene-
dict the Moor, the Rev. Mi-. Burke being appointed
its pastor. This is the first church for colored
Roman Catholics in the United States.
BURKE, Stevenson, lawyer, b. in St. Lawrence CO., N. Y., 26 Nov., 1826. He was admitted to the bar in Elyria, Ohio, in 1848, was judge of common pleas in Lorain co. from 1862 till 1869, and subsequently practised law in Cleveland. He was attorney for the Erie railway company in the proceedings connected with the re-organization of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad, and acted with Chief-Justice Waite as arbitrator in the case. He was counsel for some of the Oberlin rescuers, who forcibly released an escaped slave that had
been seized by sheriff's officers from Kentucky. Despairing of an acquittal of his clients in Cleveland, he secured the arrest of the Kentuckians and their indictment for kidnapping in Lorain co., a proceeding that impelled the opposite counsel to agree to a discontinuance of the cases on both sides. In the Butzman and Mueller case in 1884 he delivered a notable argument against the constitutionality of the Scott liquor law. He was the
agent employed by the managers of the New York Central railroad in the purchase of the New York, Chicago, and St. Louis, known as the " Nickel Plate " railroad, and has been the regular attorney of several railroad corporations and taken an active
part in the management of railroads, becoming vice-president of the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis, and the Indianapolis and St. Louis railroads, and president of the Cleve-
