J&P 10 Edmund Burke

Burke
Justice & Power, session x

Topics in This Session
i. Career
ii. Speeches
iii. Reflections on the Revolution in France; 1790
iv. Criticism

I. Career
A. origins
1. the Irish question
2. religion and schooling
B. Trinity College, Dublin, 1744
C. Middle Temple, London, 1750
D. Burke’s Enlightenment phase
1. A Vindication of Natural Society in a Letter to Lord...by a Late Noble
Writer, 1756
2. aesthetics and coffee houses
3. The Annual Register, 1758 et seq.
E. Parliament, 1765-94
1. Whigs vs. Kings Friends
2. patrons
a. Ralph, 2nd
earl of Verney
b. Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd
marquess of Rockingham, d. 1782
3. “open constituency,” Bristol 1774-79
4. “pocket borough,” Malton 1780-94

I.A.1-the Irish question
The Cambro-Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169 began more than 700 years of
English, then British, involvement in Irish history. The sixteenth century
Reformation introduced religious division into the two camps: the “Pale” of Anglo
settlement which became Anglican Protestant, and the “wild Irish,” who remained
Catholic. The seventeenth century English civil war intensified the division.
Cromwell’s Penal Laws were, according to Edmund Burke:
By the end of the seventeenth century, recusant Roman Catholics, as adherents
to the old religion were now termed, representing some 85% of Ireland's population,
were then banned from the Irish Parliament. Political power rested entirely in the
hands of an Anglican minority.
Wikipedia
“a machine of wise and elaborate contrivance, as well fitted for the oppression,
impoverishment and degradation of a people, and the debasement in them of human
nature itself, as ever proceeded from the perverted ingenuity of man.”

I.A.2-religion...
Burke was born [in 1729] in Dublin, Ireland, to a prosperous solicitor father Richard …
of the Church of Ireland…. His mother Mary...was a Roman Catholic and came from an
impoverished but genteel County Cork family....
Burke was raised in his father's faith and remained throughout his life a practicing
Anglican.... His political enemies were later repeatedly to accuse him of having been
educated at the Jesuit seminary of St. Omer's and of harboring secret Catholic
sympathies at a time when membership of the Catholic Church would disqualify him
from public office.... As Burke told Mrs. Crewe:
Once an MP, Burke was required to take the oath of allegiance and abjuration, the
oath of supremacy, and declare against transubstantiation. No Catholic is known to
have done so in the 18th century.
Wikipedia
Mr. Burke's Enemies often endeavored to convince the World that he had been bred up in the
Catholic Faith, & that his Family were of it, & that he himself had been educated at St. Omer—but this
was false, as his father was a regular practitioner of the Law at Dublin, which he could not be unless of
the Established Church: & it so happened that though Mr. B— was twice at Paris, he never happened
to go through the Town of St. Omer.

CINCINNATUS in Retirement.
falsely supposed to represent Jesuit-Pad driven back to his native Potatoes. see Romish Common-Wealth.
SUMMARY: Cartoon showing Edmund Burke, as an Irish Jesuit, seated at a table
eating potatoes from a pot labeled "Relick No. 1. used by St. Peter." Upon the
appointment of Shelburne, following the death of Rockingham, Burke resigned from his
position as Rockingham's secretary in protest.
Burke is portrayed as a Jesuit because he supported the 1778 Relief Act which relaxed
restrictions on the rights of Catholics. The poverty of the Irish is parodied by the
potatoes. Catholicism is parodied by the pictures on the wall, the mutilated crucifix, the
pot labeled as a relic of St. Peter, and the demons dancing under the table.
Wikipedia

I.A.2-religion and schooling
he received his early education at a Quaker school some 30 miles from
Dublin
1744-age 15, he went to Trinity College, Dublin

he received his early education at a Quaker school some 30 miles from
Dublin
1744-age 15, he went to Trinity College, Dublin
1747-he set up a debating club, now the oldest undergraduate society
in the world
1750-at his father’s request he attended the Middle Temple law
school in London. But he soon gave it up for a writing career

Part of Middle Temple c.1830 as drawn by Thomas Shepherd.

I.D.1-A Vindication...
In almost the same time, 1756, as Rousseau’s Second Discourse (1755), Burke
produced a parody of the writings of deist Lord Bolingbroke.
Contrasted with natural Liberty and natural Religion, the author sets three
general forms of government,: Despotism, the simplest and most universal, where
"unbounded Power proceeds Step by Step, until it has eradicated every laudable
Principle"; Aristocracy, which is scarcely better, as "a Genoese, or a Venetian
Republick, is a concealed Despotism"; and giddy Democracy, where the common
people are "intoxicated with the Flatteries of their Orators":
Wikipedia
Republicks have many Things in the Spirit of absolute Monarchy, but none more
than this; a shining Merit is ever hated or suspected in a popular Assembly, as well
as in a Court.

I.D.1-A Vindication…(cont)
Having employed fulminating rhetoric to dispense with the artificial Political
Societies...the author, it might be expected, will turn to his idea of Natural Society
for contrast. Instead, he turns his critical eye upon the Mixed government, which
combines monarchy, aristocracy and a tempered democracy, the form of politics this
essay's British readers would immediately identify as their own. His satirist's view
takes it all in, painting once again in broad strokes the dilemmas of the law courts or
the dissatisfactions of wealth, and closes— without actually having vindicated
natural society at all.
Wikipedia
Republicks have many Things in the Spirit of absolute Monarchy, but none more
than this; a shining Merit is ever hated or suspected in a popular Assembly, as well
as in a Court.

I.D.1-A Vindication…(concl.)
"The writers against religion, whilst they oppose every system,
are wisely careful never to set up any of their own." A Vindication
of Natural Society..
Wikipedia

I.D.2-aesthetics and coffee houses
Just as 18th
century France had its salons where the intelligentsia gathered to talk
of Enlightenment topics, the corresponding British institution was private clubs
which met in coffee houses. Their topics were not narrowly political. So the young
Burke (late twenties) was welcomed into one of the most glittering gatherings. It
featured literary giants like Dr. Samuel Johnson, the lexicographer, and his
biographer, James Boswell; the painter, Sir Joshua Reynolds; the Anglo-Irish
playwright, Oliver Goldsmith; actor, David Garrick; Thomas Wharton, poet
laureate; music historian, Charles Burney; and political exile and Corsican patriot,
Pasquale Paoli. They called themselves simply, The Club.
jbp

I.D.3-The Annual Register, 1758 to the present
is a long-established reference work, written and published each year, which
records and analyses the year’s major events, developments and trends throughout
the world. It was first written in 1758 under the editorship of Edmund Burke, [only
29 years old at the time] and has been produced continuously since that date. In its
current form the first half of the book comprises articles on each of the world’s
countries or regions, while the latter half contains articles on international
organizations, economics, the environment, science, law, religion, the arts and sport,
together with obituaries, a chronicle of major events and selected documents. In
addition to being produced annually in hardback, the book is also published
electronically and its entire 250-year archive is available online from its publisher,
ProQuest.
Wikipedia

I.D.3-The Annual Register, 1758 to the present
is a long-established reference work, written and published each year, which
records and analyses the year’s major events, developments and trends throughout
the world. It was first written in 1758 under the editorship of Edmund Burke, [only
29 years old at the time]• and has been produced continuously since that date. In
its current form the first half of the book comprises articles on each of the world’s
countries or regions, while the latter half contains articles on international
organizations, economics, the environment, science, law, religion, the arts and sport,
together with obituaries, a chronicle of major events and selected documents. In
addition to being produced annually in hardback, the book is also published
electronically and its entire 250-year archive is available online from its publisher,
ProQuest.
Wikipedia

I.E.-Parliament, 1765-94-1. Whigs vs “King’s Friends”
& 2. patrons
December, 1765-Burke entered the House of Commons for Wendover, a
“pocket borough” under the control of Ralph, Lord Fermanagh, later 2nd
earl of
Verney. This fellow Anglo-Irishman was an ally of the marquess of Rockingham,
the current prime minister. Burke first became secretary to Rockingham, then was
given this “safe seat.” Before the Reform Bill of 1832 election to the House of
Commons was a travesty by modern standards.
Burke was a Whig, as were his patrons. They were, therefore, the opponents
of the court faction, then styled the “King’s Friends.” They are famous to us as
the authors of that series of repressive measures which led to our revolution: Lord
North, George Grenville (Stamp & Sugar Acts, 1764-65); Charles Townshend
(Revenue Act, 1767)
jbp

I.E.-Parliament, 1765-94-3. “open constituency”
Bristol, 1774-79 4.”pocket borough,” Malton,1780-94
His career was sufficiently successful that in 1774 he ran in a real election in
Britain’s second largest city, the seaport of Bristol. It was here that he developed
his famous position that he was chosen by his constituents to use his own
judgement in voting, not “take a poll” to see what the most popular vote might be.
After being voted out for following his conscience, he spent the rest of his career in
a safe “pocket borough.”
jbp
In May 1778 Burke supported a motion in Parliament to revise the restrictions
on Irish trade. However his constituents in Bristol, a great trading city, urged
Burke to oppose free trade with Ireland. Burke resisted these demands and
said: "If, from this conduct, I shall forfeit their suffrages at an ensuing election,
it will stand on record an example to future representatives of the Commons of
England, that one man at least had dared to resist the desires of his
constituents when his judgment assured him they were wrong".--Wiki

II. Speeches
A. constitutional issue - Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents, 1770
1. “Prerogative” vs “Influence”
2. parties vs factions
B. colonial policy
1. American - American Taxation, 1774, Conciliation with America, 1775
2. Irish
3. Indian - Hastings impeachment, 1787-95
4. African- Wilberforce and the slave trade, 1788-89
C. French Revolution
1. Reflections (below)
a. Thomas Paine’s The Rights of Man, 1791-92
2. An Appeal from the Old to the New Whigs, 1791
3. Three Letters on a Regicide Peace, 1796-97

“After Burke's maiden speech, William Pitt the Elder [the great “bringer of
victory” in the Seven Years War] said Burke had ‘spoken in such a manner as
to stop the mouths of all Europe’ and that the Commons should congratulate
itself on acquiring such a member.””-Wikipedia
Even the Anglo-Irish can sometimes acquire the “gift of gab.” Burke’s
speeches as well as his writings became a model of political oratory. Bartlett’s
quotes him extensively.
George III, our George, had been advised by his mother to “be a king!” The
first two “German” Georges had allowed their British parliaments to direct
affairs. George III and “the King’s Friends” were determined to restore
executive power. This constitutional crisis would be the occasion of Burke’s
first great political struggle.
jbp

II.A.-Thoughts on the Present Discontents, 1770
II.A.1- “What once was dead and
rotten as prerogative is now sprung
back to life in the odious form of
influence.
II.A.2-”When bad men combine, the
good must associate; else they will fall
one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a
contemptible struggle.
“Public life is a situation of power and
energy; he trespasses against his duty
who sleeps upon his watch, as well as he
that goes over to the enemy.”

II.B.Colonial Policy-1. American Taxation, 1774
“Reflect how you are to govern a people
who think they ought to be free, and think
they are not.
“Your scheme yields no revenue; it yields
nothing but discontent, disorder,
disobedience; and such is the state of
America, that after wading up to your
eyes in blood, you could only end where
you had begun;
“that is, to tax where no revenue is to be
found, to--my voice fails me; my inclination
is to go no farther--all is confusion beyond
it.”

II.B.Colonial Policy-2. Conciliation with America, 1775
“The use of force alone is but temporary.
It may subdue for a moment; but it does
not remove the necessity of subduing
again; and a nation is not governed which
is perpetually to be conquered.
“The religion most prevalent in our
northern colonies is a refinement on the
principles of resistance; it is the
dissidence of dissent, and the
protestantism of the Protestant religion.
“It is not what a lawyer tells me I may do,
but what humanity, reason and justice tell
me I ought to do.”

In Burke's view the British government was fighting "the
American English" ("our English Brethren in the
Colonies"), with a German-descended King employing "the
hireling sword of German boors and vassals" to destroy the
colonists' English liberties. On American independence,
Burke wrote: "I do not know how to wish success to those
whose Victory is to separate from us a large and noble part
of our Empire. Still less do I wish success to injustice,
oppression and absurdity".
Wikipedia

In Burke's view the British government was fighting "the American
English" ("our English Brethren in the Colonies"), with a German-
descended King employing "the hireling sword of German boors and
vassals" to destroy the colonists' English liberties. On American
independence, Burke wrote: "I do not know how to wish success to
those whose Victory is to separate from us a large and noble part of
our Empire. Still less do I wish success to injustice, oppression and
absurdity".
Wikipedia

II.B.Colonial Policy-2. Ireland
May, 1778-Burke fell out with the
merchants of Bristol because he
advocated free trade with Ireland
later that year he supported the Catholic
Relief Act which reduced the restrictions
on Irish Catholics
subject to an oath renouncing Stuart claims,
they could own property, inherit land, and join
the army
his political enemies began the false
charges that he was a Jesuit-trained
crypto-Catholic

II.B.Colonial Policy-3. Indian: Hastings’ impeachment
1750-of humble origins, Hastings joined His
Majesty’s East India Company (HEIC)
he was an able and enlightened administrator
and rose to be the first Governor General of a
unified Indian Raj. Nevertheless, he followed a
pattern of profiting from his position.
1784-after ten years, he was recalled to face
impeachment proceedings brought by Edmund
Burke
Burke’s speeches began the shift from
exploitation to paternalism as the enlightened
goal of imperialism
Warren Hastings
1732 – 1818

II.B.Colonial Policy-3. Indian: Hastings’ impeachment
1750-of humble origins, Hastings joined His
Majesty’s East India Company (HEIC)
he was an able and enlightened administrator
and rose to be the first Governor General of a
unified Indian Raj. Nevertheless, he followed a
pattern of profiting from his position.
1784-after ten years, he was recalled to face
impeachment proceedings brought by Edmund
Burke
Burke’s speeches began the shift from
exploitation to paternalism as the enlightened
goal of imperialism
1795-after a long and interrupted series of
legal maneuvers, Hastings was acquitted
Warren Hastings
1732 – 1818

II.B.Colonial Policy-4. suppression of the slave trade
1788-as the 28-year-old Wilberforce began his
long struggle in Parliament to outlaw the
detestable slave trade, Burke was among his
earliest supporters
Josiah Wedgwood created what is probably the
first iconic image to be used in a political
movement
William Wilberforce
1759 – 1833

II.B.Colonial Policy-4. suppression of the slave trade
1788-as the 28-year-old Wilberforce began his
long struggle in Parliament to outlaw the
detestable slave trade, Burke was among his
earliest supporters
Josiah Wedgwood created what is probably the
first iconic image to be used in a political
movement
the resistance of the West Indian Sugar bloc
faction in Parliament was huge, determined, and
well-financed. It delayed victory until long after
Burke’s death
William Wilberforce
1759 – 1833

Throughout his parliamentary career Burke spoke out for the
victims of cruelty and oppression. Since he was a Whig and a
“friend” of the American Revolution, it would be reasonable to
expect him to take a similar stance with those fellow Whigs who
celebrated the fall of the Bastille, July 14, 1789. But within a year
Burke had seen enough to become a most famous enemy of the
French Revolution.

Reflections
on the
Revolution
in
France
1790
1790
1790
1790
1790
1790

In January 1790, Burke read Dr. Richard Price's sermon of 4 November 1789 to the
Revolution Society, called “A Discourse On the Love of our Country.” The Revolution
Society was founded to commemorate the Glorious Revolution of 1688. In this sermon Price
espoused the philosophy of universal "rights of men". Price argued that love of our country
"does not imply any conviction of the superior value of it to other countries, or any particular
preference of its laws and constitution of government". Instead, Englishmen should see
themselves "more as citizens of the world than as members of any particular community".... Price
claimed that the principles of the Glorious Revolution included "the right to choose our own
governors, to cashier them for misconduct, and to frame a government for ourselves". Immediately
after reading Price's sermon, Burke wrote a draft of what eventually became the Reflections on
the Revolution in France. On 13 February 1790, a notice in the press said that Burke would
shortly publish a pamphlet on the Revolution and its British supporters, however he spent the
year revising and expanding it.
Wikipedia
What provoked Burke?

Origin of the Reflections
21 January 1790-Burke read Price’s sermon
praising the French Revolution
Richard Price
1723 – 1791

next, a letter from Tom Paine predicted that it
would spread across Europe
Tom Paine
1737 – 1809

next, a letter from Tom Paine predicted that it
would spread across Europe
this changed Burke’s “wait and see” attitude into
positive scepticism--Clark, p. 63
he began an essay in the form of a letter to a
French friend expressing his concerns about the
perils which he saw inherent in events
the longer he rewrote, the more French violence
confirmed his pessimism
1 November 1790-The finished essay went to
print and became an immediate best seller
Richard Price
1723 – 1791
Tom Paine
1737 – 1809

III. Reflections on the Revolution in France
A. “metaphysical abstraction”
1. “circumstances give...principle...its...effect”
B. “cashiering kings”
1. servants of the people?
2. “the [Glorious] Revolution of 1688”
a. object?
b. difference from French?
C. the British way
1. constitution
a. Magna Carta, 1215
b. Petition of Right, 1628
c. Declaration of Right (Bill of Rights), 1689
2. society
a. organic and “natural”
b. intergenerational ties and tradition
D. French errors
1. material for a British style “reparation”
2. two better alternatives
3. equality
4. the evils of the Revolution
a. poverty, immorality, and irreligion
b. counterrevolution building abroad
c. Burke’s fallacy of unnatural revolution
d. “church pillaged”
e. “paper securities” (assignats)
1. instead of “recognized species” (Au & Ag)

“I flatter myself that I love a manly, moral, regulated liberty as well as
any gentleman of that [Revolution] society, be he who he will; and
perhaps I have given as good proofs of my attachment to that cause, in
the whole course of my public conduct….But I cannot stand forward,
and give praise or blame to any thing which relates to human
actions...on a simple view of the object, as it stands stripped of every
relation, in all the nakedness and solitude of a metaphysical
abstraction. Circumstances...give in reality to every political principle
its distinguishing colour, and discriminating effect. The circumstances
are what render every...political scheme beneficial or noxious to
mankind.”
III.A.1.”...metaphysical abstraction…”
This and all subsequent quotations from Reflections are taken from Clark, op.cit. He indicates the pages in
the 1790 edition. I will cite those pages as, here,
Burke, pp. 7-8

Kings, in one sense, are undoubtedly the servants of the people,
because their power has no other rational end than that of the general
advantage; but it is not true that they are, in the ordinary sense, (by
our constitution at least), anything like servants; the essence of whose
situation is to obey the commands of some other, and to be removable
at pleasure. But the king of Great Britain obeys no other person; all
other persons are...under him, and owe to him a legal obedience….
The ceremony of cashiering kings, of which these gentlemen talk so
much at their ease, can rarely, if ever, be performed without force.
(cont.)
* cashier, v. = to dismiss in disgrace, especially from the armed forces
III.B.1.”...cashiering* kings…”

force. (cont.) It then becomes a case of war, and not of constitution.
Laws are commanded to hold their tongues amongst arms; and
tribunals fall to the ground with the peace they are no longer able to
uphold. The Revolution of 1688 was obtained by a just war, in the
only case in which any war, and much more a civil war, can be just. “Justa
bella quibus necessaria.” [Wars are just to those to whom they are
necessary.”] The question of dethroning, or, if these gentlemen like
the phrase better, “cashiering kings,” will always be, as it has always
been, an extraordinary question of state, and wholly out of the law; a
question...of dispositions, and of means, and of probable
consequences, rather than of positive rights. As it was not made for
common abuses, so it is not to be agitated by common minds.
III.B.1.”...cashiering* kings…”
Burke, pp. 41-43

The third...right, asserted by [Price], namely the “right to form a
government for ourselves,” has, at least, as little countenance from
anything done at the Revolution [of 1688], either in precedent or
principle, as the two first of their claims [1.“to choose our own
governors” 2. “to cashier them for misconduct”]. The Revolution was
made to preserve our ancient, indisputable laws and liberties, and that
ancient constitution of government which is our only security for law
and liberty….The very idea of the fabrication of a new government is
enough to fill us with disgust and horror.
Burke, p. 44
III.B.2.”the [Glorious] Revolution of 1688”
a. object?
a. object?

Since Price’s sermon attempted to praise the French revolutionaries
for following Britain’s example during the Glorious Revolution, Burke
now proceeds to show how the two events are polar opposites. First,
he will give his interpretation of English history as a gradual, organic
movement towards liberty, always keeping the best of the past:
Then he will show how the French have “thrown the baby out with the
bath water.”
III.B.2.”the [Glorious] Revolution of 1688”
jbp
...that all and singular the rights and liberties asserted and declared, [in
the Bill of Rights of 1689] are the true ancient and indubitable rights and
liberties of the people of this kingdom.”
Burke, p. 47

Our experience of 1787, the Constitutional Convention in
Philadelphia, leads most Americans to think that a constitution must
be a document, a “supreme Law of the Land”(how our Constitution
defines itself in Article VI, clause 2).
The British have an “unwritten constitution.” Rather, it’s better
thought of as an “uncollected constitution.” A series of historical legal
landmarks define what the shape of the British government is. Burke
now recounts this history--[a]Magna Carta, 1215; [b]Petition of
Right, 1628; and [c]Declaration of Right (better known as the
English Bill of Rights) 1689.
III.C.the British way-1. constitution
jbp

Burke, p. 47
“You will observe that from Magna Charta [sic] to the Declaration
of Right, it has been the uniform policy of our constitution to claim and
assert our liberties, as an entailed inheritance derived to us from our
forefathers, and to be transmitted to our posterity; as an estate
specially belonging to the people of this kingdom, without any
reference whatever to any other more general or prior right [like
“natural rights” or the French “Rights of Man and the Citizen,” jbp].

Contemporary French
poster listing the Rights
of Man
note the similarity to the tablets
of the ten commandments

Burke, p. 47
“You will observe that from Magna Charta [sic] to the Declaration
of Right, it has been the uniform policy of our constitution to claim and
assert our liberties, as an entailed inheritance derived to us from our
forefathers, and to be transmitted to our posterity; as an estate
specially belonging to the people of this kingdom, without any
reference whatever to any other more general or prior right [like
“natural rights” or the French “Rights of Man and the Citizen,” jbp].
“This policy appears to me to be the result of profound reflection; or
rather the happy effect of following nature, which is wisdom without
reflection, and above it. A spirit of innovation is generally the result of
a selfish temper and confined views. People will never look forward to
posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.”

Unlike the mechanistic philosophers who saw government as a
machine and thought of the job of repairing government as designing a
better mechanical device (Hobbes’ ‘robot’),
III.C.the British way-2. society a. organic & natural
jbp

better mechanical device (Hobbes’ ‘robot’)•, Burke was fond of the
analogy of a living organism. This makes him an organic political
philosopher. If a machine is worn out or broken you can simply discard
it or replace the broken parts. But if you’re dealing with a living
organism, a different approach is necessary.
jbp

better mechanical device (Hobbes’ ‘robot’), Burke was fond of the
analogy of a living organism. This makes him an organic political
philosopher. If a machine is worn out or broken you can simply discard
it or replace the broken parts. But if you’re dealing with a living
organism, a different approach is necessary.
jbp

“The institutions of policy, the goods of fortune, the gifts of
providence, are handed down to us, and from us, in the same course
and order. Our political system is placed in a just correspondence and
symmetry with the order of the world, and with the mode of existence
decreed to a permanent body composed of transitory parts; wherein,
by the disposition of a stupendous wisdom [cf. “Nature and Nature’s
God,” jbp], moulding together the great mysterious incorporation of
the human race, the whole, at one time, is never old, or middleaged, or
young, but, in a condition of unchangeable constancy, moves on
through the varied tenor of perpetual decay, fall, renovation, and
progression. (cont.)
III.C.the British way-2. society b. intergenerational ties & tradition

“... through the varied tenor of perpetual decay, fall, renovation, and
progression. (cont.) Thus, by preserving the method of nature in the
conduct of the state, in what we improve, we are never wholly new; in
what we retain, we are never wholly obsolete….In this choice we have
given to our frame of polity the image of a relation in blood; binding up
the constitution of our country with our dearest domestic ties;
adopting our fundamental laws into the bosom of our family affections;
keeping inseparable, and cherishing with the warmth of all
their...charities, our state, our hearths, our sepulchers, and our altars.”
III.C.the British way-2. society b. intergenerational ties & tradition
Burke, pp. 48-49

“You [in France], if you pleased, might have profited from our example,
and have given to your recovered freedom a corresponding dignity.
Your privileges, though discontinued [i.e., lost to the absolutism,
beginning with Louis xiv] were not lost to memory….you possessed in
some parts the walls, and, in all, the foundations. Your constitution was
suspended before it was perfected; but you had the elements of a
constitution very nearly as good as could be wished….
You had all these advantages in your ancient states [the Estates
General, which had last met almost two centuries before 1789]; but
you chose to act as if you had never been moulded into civil society,
and had everything to begin anew.”
III.D.French Errors-1. material for a British style reparation
Burke, pp. 50-51

[1] “You might have built on those old foundations….Respecting
your forefathers, you would have been taught to respect yourselves….
[2] “...or, if diffident of yourselves, and not clearly discerning the
almost obliterated constitution of your ancestors, you had looked to
your neighbors in this land [Britain], who had kept alive the ancient
principles...of the old common law of Europe meliorated and adapted
to its present state--by following wise examples you would have given
new examples of wisdom to the world…. You would have shamed
despotism from the earth....”
III.D.French Errors-2. two better alternatives
Burke, pp. 50-53

“You would have had a free constitution; a potent monarchy, a disciplined
army; a reformed and venerated clergy; a mitigated but spirited nobility...; you
would have had a liberal order of commons, to emulate and to recruit that
nobility; you would have had a protected, satisfied, laborious, and obedient
people, taught to seek...the happiness that is to be found by virtue in all
conditions; in which exists the true moral [emphasis added, jbp] equality of
mankind, and not in that monstrous fiction, which, by inspiring false ideas and
vain expectations into men destined to travel in the obscure walk of laborious
life, serves only to aggravate and embitter that real inequality, which it never
can remove; and which the order of civil life establishes as much for the benefit
of those whom it must leave in an humble state, as those whom it is able to exalt
to a condition more splendid, but not more happy.”
III.D.French Errors-3. equality
Burke, pp. 53-54

“Compute your gains: see what is got by those extravagant…
speculations….By following those false lights [Burke compares the
revolutionary leaders to the false beacons which wreckers would erect to
lure coastal ships onto rocks where they might be looted], France has
bought undisguised calamities at a higher price than any nation has
purchased the most unequivocal blessings! [a]France has bought
poverty by crime! France has not sacrificed her virtue to her interest; but
she has abandoned her interest that she might prostitute her
virtue….France, when she let loose the reins of regal authority, doubled
the license of a ferocious dissoluteness in manners•, and of an insolent
irreligion in opinions and practices, and has extended through all ranks of
life...the unhappy corruptions that usually were the disease of wealth and
power.”
III.D.French Errors-4. the evils of the Revolution
Burke, pp. 53-54

“France, by the perfidy of their leaders, has utterly disgraced the tone of
lenient council in the cabinets of princes….She has sanctified the dark,
suspicious maxims of tyrannous mistrust and taught kings to
tremble….Sovereigns will consider those, who advise them to place an
unlimited confidence in their people, as subverters of their thrones; as
traitors who aim at their destruction….This alone (if there were nothing
else) is an irreparable calamity to you and to mankind.”
III.D.4. the evils of the Revolution b. counterrevolution building abroad
Burke, p. 55
so gradual reform will not occur and kings will become even
more oppressive

“They have seen the French rebel against a mild and lawful monarch,
with more fury, outrage, and insult, than ever any people has been known
to rise against the most illegal usurper, or the most sanguinary tyrant.
Their resistance was made to concession; their revolt was from
protection; their blow was aimed at a hand holding out graces, favors and
immunities.
“This was unnatural. The rest is in order. They have found their
punishment in their success”
III.D.4. the evils of the Revolution c. Burke’s fallacy of “unnatural revolution”
Burke, p. 56
Revolution is more likely when regimes start to reform.
Tyrants are rarely rebelled against

“Laws overturned; tribunals subverted; industry without vigor; commerce
expiring; the revenue unpaid, yet the people impoverished; a church
pillaged, and a state not relieved; civil and military anarchy…;everything
human and divine sacrificed to the idol of public credit, and national
bankruptcy the consequence; and , to crown it all, the paper securities of
a new, precarious, tottering power, the discredited securities of
impoverished fraud and beggared rapine, held out as a currency for the
support of an empire,
III.D.4. the evils of the Revolution d. “church pillaged” & e. “paper securities”
Burke, p. 56

“Laws overturned; tribunals subverted; industry without vigor; commerce
expiring; the revenue unpaid, yet the people impoverished; a church
pillaged, and a state not relieved; civil and military anarchy…;everything
human and divine sacrificed to the idol of public credit, and national
bankruptcy the consequence; and , to crown it all, the paper securities•
of a new, precarious, tottering power, the discredited securities of
impoverished fraud and beggared rapine, held out as a currency for the
support of an empire, in lieu of the two great recognized species [Au &
Ag] that represent the lasting, conventional credit of mankind, which
disappeared and hid themselves in the earth from whence they came….”
III.D.4. the evils of the Revolution d. “church pillaged” & e. “paper securities”
Burke, p. 56

III. Reflections on the Revolution in France
A. “metaphysical abstraction”
B. “cashiering kings”
C. the British way
D. French errors
E. National Assembly
1. misleading name
a. popular selection and merit
2. Tiers Etat
a. what they lack
b. history, 1788-90
c. lawyers
d. “country clowns,” merchants, doctors, financiers, and others
e. differences from House of Commons
3. First and Second Estates
a. country curates
b. “discontented men of quality”
c. “the first principle...of public affections”?
F. Other “pearls”
1. “ten thousand swords”
2. “half a dozen grasshoppers”
3. “a partnership agreement”

“This unforced choice, this fond election of evil, would appear perfectly
unaccountable, if we did not consider the composition of the National
Assembly; I do not mean its formal constitution...but the materials of
which it is composed, which is of ten thousand times greater consequence
than all the formalities in the world.”
III.E.National Assembly.
Burke, p. 58
1. It sounds great, but
a. just because the people have selected its members
doesn’t make the legislators any wiser than they were to
begin with

“This unforced choice, this fond election of evil, would appear perfectly
unaccountable, if we did not consider the composition of the National
Assembly; I do not mean its formal constitution...but the materials of
which it is composed, which is of ten thousand times greater consequence
than all the formalities in the world.”
III.E.National Assembly.
Burke, p. 58

“After I had read over the list of the persons and descriptions elected
into the Tiers Etat, nothing which they did afterwards could appear
astonishing. Among them, indeed, I saw some of known rank; some of
shining talents; but of any practical experience in the state, not one man
was to be found”
III.E.National Assembly. 2. Tiers Etat
Burke, p. 59
a. what they lack--experience in governing
b. since the 3rd
was = to both the 1st
& 2nd
combined, they
came to predominate

“After I had read over the list of the persons and descriptions elected
into the Tiers Etat, nothing which they did afterwards could appear
astonishing. Among them, indeed, I saw some of known rank; some of
shining talents; but of any practical experience in the state, not one man
was to be found”
III.E.National Assembly. 2. Tiers Etat
Burke, p. 59

“Judge, sir, of my surprize, when I found that a very great
proportion...was composed of practitioners of the law. It was composed
not of distinguished magistrates...not of leading advocates, the glory of
the bar…;--but...of the inferior, unlearned, mechanical, merely instrumental
members of the profession….the fomentors and conductors of the petty
war of village vexation. From the moment I read the list I saw distinctly,
and very nearly as it happened, all that was to follow….
“Who could flatter himself that these men, suddenly, and, as it were, by
enchantment, snatched from the humblest rank of subordination, would
not be intoxicated with their unprepared greatness?”
III.E.National Assembly. 2. Tiers Etat c. lawyers
Burke, p. 61

“Well! but these men were to be tempered and restrained by other
descriptions, of more sober minds, and more enlarged understandings.
Were they then to be awed by the...awful dignity of a handful of country
clowns [peasant farmers] who have seats in the assembly, some of whom
are said not to be able to read and write? and by not a greater number of
traders, who, though somewhat more instructed, ...had never known any
thing beyond their counting house? No! both these descriptions were
more formed to be overborne and swayed by the intrigues and artifices
of lawyers, than to become their counterpoise”
III.E.National Assembly. 2. Tiers Etat d. “country
clowns,” merchants, doctors, financiers and others
Burke, pp. 63-64

“We know that the British house of commons, without shutting its
doors to any merit in any class, is, by the sure operation of adequate
causes, filled with every thing illustrious in rank, in descent, in hereditary
and in acquired opulence, in cultivated talents, in military, civil, naval, and
politic distinction, that the country can afford”
III.E.National Assembly. 2. Tiers Etat e.
differences from the House of Commons
Burke, pp. 64-65

III.E.National Assembly. 3. First and Second Estates
Burke, p. 67
a. country curates

“Having considered the composition of the third estate…, I took a view
of the representatives of the clergy. There too it appeared, that full as
little regard was had to the general security of property, or to the
aptitude of the deputies for their public purposes, in the principles of
their election. That election was so contrived as to send a very large
proportion of mere country curates to the great and arduous work of
new-modeling a state;...men who knew nothing of the world beyond the
bounds of an obscure village; who, immersed in hopeless poverty, could
regard all property, whether secular or ecclesiastical, with no other eye
than that of envy….Instead of balancing the power of the active chicaners
in the other assembly….”
Burke, p. 67
a. country curates

“This preponderating weight being added to the force of the body
chicane in the Tiers Etat, completed the momentum of ignorance,
rashness, presumption, and lust of plunder, which nothing has been able to
resist.”
Burke, p. 68

b. “discontented men of quality” & c. “the first principle...of public affections”
Honoré Gabriel Riqueti
comte de Mirabeau
1749-1791(The Bill Clinton of the
Revolution)
(The Bill Clinton of the Revolution)

“[in the Second Estate, the nobility] Turbulent, discontented men of
quality, in proportion as they are puffed up with personal pride and
arrogance, generally despise their own order. One of the first symptoms
they discover of a selfish and mischievous ambition, is a profligate
disregard of a dignity which they partake with others. To be attached to
the subdivision, to love the little platoon we belong to in society, is [c] the
first principle ( the germ as it were) of public affections. It is the first link
in the series by which we proceed towards a love to our country and to
mankind.”
Burke, pp. 68-69
b. “discontented men of quality” & c. “the first principle...of public affections”

It is now sixteen or seventeen years[1773] since I [age 44]saw the
queen of France [age 18], then the Dauphiness, at Versailles; and
surely never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a
more delightful vision.
III.F.Other Pearls-1.”...ten thousand swords…”

It is now sixteen or seventeen years[1773] since I [age 44]saw the
queen of France [age 18], then the Dauphiness, at Versailles; and
surely never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a
more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and
cheering the elevated sphere she just began to move in,--glittering like
the morning-star, full of life and splendor and joy. Oh! what a
revolution! and what a heart must I have, to contemplate that elevation
and that fall! Little did I dream when she added titles of veneration to
those of enthusiastic, distant, respectful love, that she should ever be
obliged to carry the sharp antidote against disgrace concealed in that
bosom! (cont.)
III.F.Other Pearls-1.”...ten thousand swords…”

antidote against disgrace concealed in that bosom! (cont.) little did I
dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fallen upon her in a
nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor, and of cavaliers! I
thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards
to avenge even a look that threatened her with insult. But the age of
chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and calculators has
succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished forever….
III.F.1.”...ten thousand swords…”
Burke, pp. 112-113

The memorable day at Versailles, Monday 5 October 1789The memorable day at Versailles, Monday 5 October 1789
In this general riot, several bodyguards have been massacred; two among themIn this general riot, several bodyguards have been massacred; two among them
were decapitated and their heads carried in triumph by this same people, friendwere decapitated and their heads carried in triumph by this same people, friend
of national libertyof national liberty

Our Modern Amazons, glorious for their victories, return on horse and upon cannons, with several good men ofOur Modern Amazons, glorious for their victories, return on horse and upon cannons, with several good men of
the National Guard, holding poplar branches to the repeated cries of Vive la Nation, Vive le Roithe National Guard, holding poplar branches to the repeated cries of Vive la Nation, Vive le Roi

This orgy of disrespect for the monarchy was “the last straw” to
Burke. Much of the venomous emotion which colors his prose stems
from this episode.
jbp

“The vanity, restlessness, petulance, and spirit of intrigue, of several
petty cabals, who attempt to hide their total want of consequence in
bustle and noise, and puffing, and mutual quotations of each other,
makes you imagine that our contemptuous neglect of their abilities is a
mark of general acquiescence in their opinions….Because half a dozen
grasshoppers under a fern make the field ring with their importunate
chink, whilst thousands of great cattle, reposed beneath the shadow of
the British oak, chew the cud and are silent, pray do not imagine that
those who make the noise (cont.)
III.F.2.”...half a dozen grasshoppers…”

silent, pray do not imagine that those who make the noise (cont.) are
the only inhabitants of the field; that, of course, they are many in
number; or that, after all, they are other than the little, shriveled,
meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome, insects of the hour….”
III.F.2.”...half a dozen grasshoppers…”
Burke, pp. 126-127

“Society is indeed a contract. Subordinate contracts for objects of
mere occasional interest may be dissolved at pleasure; but the state
ought not to be considered as nothing better than a partnership
agreement in a trade of pepper and coffee, calico or tobacco, or some
other such low concern, to be taken up for a little temporary interest,
and to be dissolved by the fancy of the parties. It is to be looked on
with other reverence; because it is not a partnership in things
subservient only to the gross animal existence of a temporary and
perishable nature (cont.)
III.F.3.”...a partnership agreement…”

existence of a temporary and perishable nature (cont.) It is a
partnership in all science, a partnership in all art, a partnership in every
virtue and in all perfection. As the ends of such a partnership cannot
be obtained in many generations, it becomes a partnership not only
between those who are living, but between those who are living, those
who are dead, and those who are to be born. Each contract of each
particular state is but a clause in the great primeval contract of eternal
society, linking the lower with the higher natures, connecting the visible
and invisible world….”
III.F.3.”...a partnership agreement…”
Burke, pp. 143-144

Criticism
Hanna Pitkin
1931-
T. B. Macaulay
1800-1859
Sir Philip Francis
1740-1818
Thomas Paine
1737-1809
Russell Kirk
1918-1994
Winston Churchill
1874-1965
Lord Acton
1834-1902

IV. Criticism
A. Historical Critics
1. 18th
century
2. 19th
century
3. 20th
century
B. Criticism from Justice & Power, 1977
1. historic vision
2. Burke’s role in history
3. rejection of systematic or abstract doctrines
4. Nature and God
5. change
6. reason and emotion
7. validity of status, hierarchy and tradition

IV.A.1-Thomas Paine Rights of Man, 1791
sent to the printer three months
after Burke’s Reflections appeared
March, 1791-Paine, who had been
in London since 1787, fled to
France as he was charged with
seditious libel
Feb, 1792-undeterred by the
British government’s campaign to
discredit him , he issued a Rights of
Man, Part the Second

IV.A.1-Thomas Paine Rights of Man, 1791
sent to the printer three months
after Burke’s Reflections appeared
March, 1791-Paine, who had been
in London since 1787, fled to
France as he was charged with
seditious libel
Feb, 1792-undeterred by the
British government’s campaign to
discredit him , he issued a Rights of
Man, Part the Second
Satirist James Gilray responded
with a famous poster

Cartoon showing Britannia clasping trunk of a large oak, while Thomas Paine tugs with both hands at her stay laces, his
foot on her posterior. From his coat pocket protrudes a pair of scissors and a tape inscribed: Rights of Man. Behind him is
a thatched cottage inscribed: Thomas Pain, Staymaker from Thetford. Paris Modes, by express.
Published by H. Humphrey, 1793.

The most famous passage in Burke's Reflections was his description of the
events of 5–6 October 1789 and Marie Antoinette's part in them. Burke's
account differs little from modern historians who have used primary sources.
His use of flowery language to describe it, however, provoked both praise
and criticism. Philip Francis [his friend and ally in the Hastings impeachment]
wrote to Burke saying that what he wrote of Marie Antoinette was "pure
foppery". Edward Gibbon however reacted differently: "I adore his chivalry".
Wiki
IV.A.1-18th
century--Philip Francis
1740-1818

Macaulay recorded in his diary: "I have now finished reading again
most of Burke's works. Admirable! The greatest man since
Milton".
Thomas Babington Macaulay,as quoted in Wiki
IV.A.2-19th
century
1800-1859

The Conservative Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli "was deeply
penetrated with the spirit and sentiment of Burke's later
writings".The Liberal Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone
considered Burke "a magazine of wisdom on Ireland and America"
and in his diary recorded: "Made many extracts from Burke—
sometimes almost divine".
Wiki
IV.A.2-
Gladstone
1809-1898
Disraeli
1804-1881

The Liberal historian Lord Acton considered Burke one of the
three greatest liberals, along with William Gladstone and Thomas
Babington Macaulay..
Wiki
IV.A.2-19th
cent
1834-1902

On the one hand [Burke] is revealed as a foremost apostle of Liberty, on the
other as the redoubtable champion of Authority. But a charge of political
inconsistency applied to this life appears a mean and petty thing. History easily
discerns the reasons and forces which actuated him, and the immense changes in
the problems he was facing which evoked from the same profound mind and
sincere spirit these entirely contrary manifestations. His soul revolted against
tyranny, whether it appeared in the aspect of a domineering Monarch and a
corrupt Court and Parliamentary system, or whether, mouthing the watch-words
of a non-existent liberty, it towered up against him in the dictation of a brutal mob
and wicked sect. No one can read the Burke of Liberty and the Burke of
Authority without feeling that here was the same man pursuing the same ends,
seeking the same ideals of society and Government, and defending them from
assaults, now from one extreme, now from the other.
Winston Churchill, in “Consistency in Politics”,as quoted in Wiki
IV.A.3-20th
century
1874-1965

Russell Kirk was an American political theorist, moralist, historian,
social critic, literary critic, and fiction author known for his influence on
20th century American conservatism. His 1953 book, The Conservative
Mind, gave shape to the amorphous post–World War II conservative
movement. It traced the development of conservative thought in the
Anglo-American tradition, giving special importance to the ideas of
Edmund Burke. Kirk was also considered the chief proponent of
traditionalist conservatism.--Wiki
IV.A.3-20th
century
1918-1994

Burke was a leading skeptic with respect to democracy.... He opposed
democracy for three basic reasons. First, government required a degree of
intelligence and breadth of knowledge of the sort that was very uncommon
among the common people. Second he thought that common people had
dangerous and angry passions that could be easily aroused by demagogues
if they had the vote; he feared the authoritarian impulses that could be
empowered by these passions would undermine cherished traditions and
established religion, leading to violence and confiscation of property.
Thirdly, Burke warned that democracy would tyrannize unpopular minorities
who needed the protection of the upper classes.
Hanna Pitkin, Cal Berkeley, as quoted in Wiki
IV.A.3-20th
century

“Burke’s language seemed extreme; it was soon to seem prophetic.”--
J.C.D.Clark, ed. op. cit,. p. 77
IV.B.1.historic vision
Two years before the guillotine came to symbolize the worst excesses of
the Terror Burke wrote:
“On the scheme of this barbarous philosophy, which is the
offspring of cold hearts and muddy understandings...laws are to be
supported only by their own terrors….In the groves of their
academy, at the end of every visto [sic], you see nothing but the
gallows.”
(cont.)
Burke, p. 115

IV.B.1.historic vision (cont.)
Nine years before Napoleon came to power Burke wrote:
“In the weakness of one kind of authority, and in the fluctuation of all, the
officers of the army will remain… mutinous...until some popular general, who
understands the art of conciliating the soldiery, and who possesses the
true spirit of command, shall draw the eyes of all men upon himself. Armies
will obey him on his personal account….But the moment in which that event
shall happen, the person who really commands the army is your master;
The master (that is little)of your king,the master of your assembly, the
master of your whole republic.
Everything depends upon the army in such a government as yours; for
you have industriously destroyed...all the instincts which support
government….you must have recourse to force. Nothing else is left to you;
or rather you have left nothing else to yourselves.
Burke, pp. 317-318

IV.B.1.historic vision (concluded)
“...the force of Burke’s analysis for his contemporaries derived not just
from his rhetorical skill, but from the way in which his strangely haunting
intuitions were apparently realised [sic] in years to come.”
Clark, p. 84

Burke is regarded by most political experts in the English-speaking world as
the father of modern English conservatism. His liberal conservatism favoured
gradual reform over government based on abstract ideas and can be contrasted
with the autocratic conservatism of continental figures such as Joseph de
Maistre.--Wiki
IV.B.2.Burke’s role in history
His stands on so many of the questions of his day appear, in retrospect, to have
been on the ‘right side’ of history. He warned against the British oppression of
Ireland, the short-sighted policies against British North America, the wickedness
of the slave trade. But, long before men as wise as Jefferson, he saw the dangers
of the French Revolution. Most people have come to regard the spurious
quotation, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil…” as emblematic of his
wisdom.
jbp

IV.B.3.rejection of systematic or abstract doctrines
On page 7, Burke wrote:
“...all the nakedness and solitude of metaphysical abstraction.”
In Clark’s critical edition, he notes:
“...Burke certainly came to use the term ‘metaphysics’ in a
derogatory sense for the doctrines associated with the French
Revolution, e.g., Reflections, pp. [86, 90, 134, 272-4, 313, 321,
325, 344, 348].”
Clark, p. 151 , note 20

IV.B.4.Nature and God
Although many 18th
century Deists tended to use Nature (with the
capitaL ‘N’) as a sort of code word for God, this was not Burke’s usage.
He was an Anglican and events as well as his own maturing tended to
move him towards more orthodox views about the workings of Divine
Providence in history. Capitalization tended to be more idiosyncratic in
his time. Witness our Declaration of Independence.
jbp

IV.B.5.change
On page 30 Burke expressed his views on change:
jbp
A state without the means of some change is without the means of its
conservation….The two principles of conservation and correction
operated strongly at the two critical periods of the Restoration and
Revolution, when England found itself without a king. At both those
periods the nation had lost the bond of union in their ancient edifice; they
did not, however, dissolve the whole fabric.
Only reactionaries oppose all change.
Conservatives accept the need for correction but they place
conservation ahead of it (as in the sentence above) and believe that it is
possible to do both.

IV.B.6. reason and emotion
What made Burke such an effective advocate, then and now, was his
ability to combine both of these ‘tools’ in his rhetorical arguments.
jbp

“Because of [Burke’s] conviction that people desire to be ruled and controlled,
the division of property formed the basis for social structure, helping develop
control within a property-based hierarchy.”--Wiki
IV.B.7.validity of status, hierarchy and tradition
“Thanks to our sullen resistance to innovation, thanks to the cold
sluggishness of our national character, we still bear the stamp of our
forefathers. We have not (as I conceive) lost the generosity and dignity
of thinking of the fourteenth century; nor as yet have we subtilized
ourselves into savages. We are not the converts of Rousseau; we are not
the disciples of Voltaire….”
Burke, p. 127

Burke denounced what he considered to be the evils of the
Revolution and prophesied rather well how it would plunge first
France, then Europe, into bloodshed--driven by the most remarkable
military dictator the world had ever seen.
For much of the next century the forces of reaction tried to contain
the energies of the Industrial Revolution. Then a prophet would arise
to inspire the greatest revolution the world had ever seen.
But, that’s another story...

J&P 10 Edmund Burke

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