Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 1.djvu/240

 229 WALTER HUSSEY BURGH CAME into parliament under the auspices of James, Duke of Leinster, and immediately joined the opposition then formed against the administration of Lord Townshend. His speeches when he first entered the house of com- mons, were very brilliant, very figurative, and far more remarkable for that elegant poetic taste, which had highly distinguished him when a member of the university, than any logical illustration or depth of argument; every session however, took away somewbat of that unnecessary and exuberant splendour. His eloquence (says one of his contemporaries) was by no means gaudy, tumid, nor approaching to that species of oratory,which the Roman critics denominated Asiatic; but it was always decorated as the occasion required: it was often compressed, and pointed; it was sustained by great ingenuity, great rapidity of intellect, luminous and piercing satire; in refinement, abundant, in simplicity, sterile. The classical allusions of this orator, for he was most truly one, were so apposite, they followed each other in such bright, and varied succession, and, at times, spread such an unex- pected and triumphant blaze around his subject, that all persons, who were in the least tinged with literature, could never be tired of listening to him. He accepted the office of prime serjeant during the early part of Lord Buckinghamshire's administration; but the experience of one session convinced him, that his sentiments and those of the English and Irish cabinets, on the great questions relative to the independence of Ireland, would never assimilate. He soon grew weary of his situa- tion; when his return to the standard of opposition was marked by all ranks of people, and especially his own profession, as a day of splendid triumph. Numerous were the congratulations which he received on this sacrifice of