Edmund Burke (; 12 January NS] 1729 – 9 July 1797) was an Irish statesman, economist, and philosopher.
Volume I: 1730–1784 (Clarendon Press, 1999). Lock, F.
Volume I: 1730–1784.
He remained in correspondence with his schoolmate from there, Mary Leadbeater, the daughter of the school's owner, throughout his life. In 1744, Burke started at Trinity College Dublin, a Protestant establishment which up until 1793 did not permit Catholics to take degrees.
In 1747, he set up a debating society Edmund Burke's Club which in 1770 merged with TCD's Historical Club to form the College Historical Society, the oldest undergraduate society in the world.
Burke graduated from Trinity in 1748.
Born in Dublin, Burke served as a member of parliament (MP) between 1766 and 1794 in the House of Commons of Great Britain with the Whig Party after moving to London in 1750. Burke was a proponent of underpinning virtues with manners in society and of the importance of religious institutions for the moral stability and good of the state.
Burke's father wanted him to read Law and with this in mind he went to London in 1750, where he entered the Middle Temple, before soon giving up legal study to travel in Continental Europe.
After eschewing the Law, he pursued a livelihood through writing. == Early writing == The late Lord Bolingbroke's Letters on the Study and Use of History was published in 1752 and his collected works appeared in 1754.
After eschewing the Law, he pursued a livelihood through writing. == Early writing == The late Lord Bolingbroke's Letters on the Study and Use of History was published in 1752 and his collected works appeared in 1754.
This provoked Burke into writing his first published work, A Vindication of Natural Society: A View of the Miseries and Evils Arising to Mankind, appearing in Spring 1756.
A minority of scholars have taken the position that in fact Burke did write the Vindication in earnest, later disowning it only for political reasons. In 1757, Burke published a treatise on aesthetics titled A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful that attracted the attention of prominent Continental thinkers such as Denis Diderot and Immanuel Kant.
It was his only purely philosophical work and when asked by Sir Joshua Reynolds and French Laurence to expand it thirty years later, Burke replied that he was no longer fit for abstract speculation (Burke had written it before he was nineteen years of age). On 25 February 1757, Burke signed a contract with Robert Dodsley to write a "history of England from the time of Julius Caesar to the end of the reign of Queen Anne", its length being eighty quarto sheets (640 pages), nearly 400,000 words.
Burke remained the chief editor of the publication until at least 1789 and there is no evidence that any other writer contributed to it before 1766. On 12 March 1757, Burke married Jane Mary Nugent (1734–1812), daughter of Dr.
It was to be submitted for publication by Christmas 1758.
Their son Richard was born on 9 February 1758 while an elder son, Christopher, died in infancy.
1702–1770), was a Roman Catholic who hailed from a déclassé County Cork family and a cousin of the Catholic educator Nano Nagle whereas his father Richard (died 1761), a successful solicitor, was a member of the Church of Ireland.
Burke also helped raise a ward, Edmund Nagle (later Admiral Sir Edmund Nagle), the son of a maternal cousin orphaned in 1763. At about this same time, Burke was introduced to William Gerard Hamilton (known as "Single-speech Hamilton").
In 1765, Burke became private secretary to the liberal Whig politician Charles, Marquess of Rockingham, then Prime Minister of Great Britain, who remained Burke's close friend and associate until his untimely death in 1782.
Rockingham also introduced Burke as a Freemason. == Member of Parliament == In December 1765, Burke entered the House of Commons of the British Parliament as Member for Wendover in Buckinghamshire, a pocket borough in the gift of Lord Fermanagh, later 2nd Earl Verney and a close political ally of Rockingham.
Born in Dublin, Burke served as a member of parliament (MP) between 1766 and 1794 in the House of Commons of Great Britain with the Whig Party after moving to London in 1750. Burke was a proponent of underpinning virtues with manners in society and of the importance of religious institutions for the moral stability and good of the state.
Burke remained the chief editor of the publication until at least 1789 and there is no evidence that any other writer contributed to it before 1766. On 12 March 1757, Burke married Jane Mary Nugent (1734–1812), daughter of Dr.
Although he did not meet Rousseau on his visit to Britain in 1766–1767, Burke was a friend of David Hume, with whom Rousseau had stayed.
In reply to the 1769 Grenvillite pamphlet The Present State of the Nation, he published his own pamphlet titled Observations on a Late State of the Nation.
In 1747, he set up a debating society Edmund Burke's Club which in 1770 merged with TCD's Historical Club to form the College Historical Society, the oldest undergraduate society in the world.
His most important publication in this regard was his Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents of 23 April 1770.
Burke was prominent in securing the right to publish debates held in Parliament. Speaking in a parliamentary debate on the prohibition on the export of grain on 16 November 1770, Burke argued in favour of a free market in corn: "There are no such things as a high, & a low price that is encouraging, & discouraging; there is nothing but a natural price, which grain brings at an universal market".
In 1770, it is known that Burke wrote in "Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents": In 1867, John Stuart Mill made a similar statement in an inaugural address delivered before the University of St.
Party divisions, "whether operating for good or evil, are things inseparable from free government". During 1771, Burke wrote a bill that would have given juries the right to determine what was libel, if passed.
In 1772, Burke was instrumental in the passing of the Repeal of Certain Laws Act 1772 which repealed various old laws against dealers and forestallers in corn. In the Annual Register for 1772 (published in July 1773), Burke condemned the partition of Poland.
In 1772, Burke was instrumental in the passing of the Repeal of Certain Laws Act 1772 which repealed various old laws against dealers and forestallers in corn. In the Annual Register for 1772 (published in July 1773), Burke condemned the partition of Poland.
He saw it as "the first very great breach in the modern political system of Europe" and as upsetting the balance of power in Europe. On 4 November 1774, Burke was elected Member for Bristol, at the time "England's second city" and a large constituency with a genuine electoral contest.
On 19 April 1774, Burke made a speech, "On American Taxation" (published in January 1775), on a motion to repeal the tea duty: Again and again, revert to your old principles—seek peace and ensue it; leave America, if she has taxable matter in her, to tax herself.
On 19 April 1774, Burke made a speech, "On American Taxation" (published in January 1775), on a motion to repeal the tea duty: Again and again, revert to your old principles—seek peace and ensue it; leave America, if she has taxable matter in her, to tax herself.
No body of men will be argued into slavery. On 22 March 1775, Burke delivered in the House of Common a speech (published during May 1775) on reconciliation with America.
British and American forces clashed in 1775 and in 1776 came the American Declaration of Independence.
Burke also called capital punishment "the Butchery which we call justice" in 1776 and in 1780 condemned the use of the pillory for two men convicted for attempting to practice sodomy. This support for unpopular causes, notably free trade with Ireland and Catholic emancipation, led to Burke losing his seat in 1780.
British and American forces clashed in 1775 and in 1776 came the American Declaration of Independence.
He failed to win re-election for that seat. In May 1778, Burke supported a parliamentary motion revising restrictions on Irish trade.
Burke also called capital punishment "the Butchery which we call justice" in 1776 and in 1780 condemned the use of the pillory for two men convicted for attempting to practice sodomy. This support for unpopular causes, notably free trade with Ireland and Catholic emancipation, led to Burke losing his seat in 1780.
Still less do I wish success to injustice, oppression and absurdity". During the Gordon Riots in 1780, Burke became a target of hostility and his home was placed under armed guard by the military. == Paymaster of the Forces == The fall of North led to Rockingham being recalled to power in March 1782.
This Act was repealed by Shelburne's administration, but the Act that replaced it repeated verbatim almost the whole text of the Burke Act. The Civil List and Secret Service Money Act 1782 was a watered down version of Burke's original intentions as outlined in his famous Speech on Economical Reform of 11 February 1780.
In 1781, Burke was first able to delve into the issues surrounding the East India Company when he was appointed Chairman of the Commons Select Committee on East Indian Affairs—from that point until the end of the trial, India was Burke's primary concern.
In 1765, Burke became private secretary to the liberal Whig politician Charles, Marquess of Rockingham, then Prime Minister of Great Britain, who remained Burke's close friend and associate until his untimely death in 1782.
Still less do I wish success to injustice, oppression and absurdity". During the Gordon Riots in 1780, Burke became a target of hostility and his home was placed under armed guard by the military. == Paymaster of the Forces == The fall of North led to Rockingham being recalled to power in March 1782.
Rockingham's unexpected death in July 1782 and replacement with Shelburne as Prime Minister put an end to his administration after only a few months, but Burke did manage to introduce two Acts. The Paymaster General Act 1782 ended the post as a lucrative sinecure.
This Act was repealed by Shelburne's administration, but the Act that replaced it repeated verbatim almost the whole text of the Burke Act. The Civil List and Secret Service Money Act 1782 was a watered down version of Burke's original intentions as outlined in his famous Speech on Economical Reform of 11 February 1780.
The Act was anticipated to save £72,368 a year. In February 1783, Burke resumed the post of Paymaster of the Forces when Shelburne's government fell and was replaced by a coalition headed by North that included Charles James Fox.
That coalition fell in 1783 and was succeeded by the long Tory administration of William Pitt the Younger which lasted until 1801.
Volume II: 1784–1797 (Clarendon Press, 2006). Levin, Yuval.
Volume II: 1784–1797.
When addressing the whole House of Commons regarding the committee report, Burke described the Indian issue as one that "began 'in commerce' but 'ended in empire'". On 28 February 1785, Burke delivered a now-famous speech, The Nabob of Arcot's Debts, wherein he condemned the damage to India by the East India Company.
Collins concludes that Burke's "gradualist" position on the emancipation of slaves, while perhaps seeming ridiculous to some modern-day readers, was nonetheless sincere. == India and the impeachment of Warren Hastings == For years, Burke pursued impeachment efforts against Warren Hastings, formerly Governor-General of Bengal, that resulted in the trial during 1786.
He set about establishing a set of imperial expectations, whose moral foundation would in his opinion warrant an overseas empire. On 4 April 1786, Burke presented the House of Commons with the Article of Charge of High Crimes and Misdemeanors against Hastings.
The Writings and Speeches of Edmund Burke (9 vol 1981– ) vol 1 online; vol 2 online; vol 6 India: The Launching of the Hastings Impeachment, 1786–1788 online; vol 8 online; vol 9 online. === Further reading === Bourke, Richard (2015).
The impeachment in Westminster Hall which did not begin until 14 February 1788 would be the "first major public discursive event of its kind in England", bringing the morality of imperialism to the forefront of public perception.
Burke remained the chief editor of the publication until at least 1789 and there is no evidence that any other writer contributed to it before 1766. On 12 March 1757, Burke married Jane Mary Nugent (1734–1812), daughter of Dr.
The House of Commons eventually impeached Hastings, but subsequently the House of Lords acquitted him of all charges. == French Revolution: 1688 versus 1789 == Initially, Burke did not condemn the French Revolution.
In a letter of 9 August 1789, he wrote: "England gazing with astonishment at a French struggle for Liberty and not knowing whether to blame or to applaud! The thing indeed, though I thought I saw something like it in progress for several years, has still something in it paradoxical and Mysterious.
The events of 5–6 October 1789, when a crowd of Parisian women marched on Versailles to compel King Louis XVI to return to Paris, turned Burke against it.
[…] [In religion] the danger of their example is no longer from intolerance, but from Atheism; a foul, unnatural vice, foe to all the dignity and consolation of mankind; which seems in France, for a long time, to have been embodied into a faction, accredited, and almost avowed. In January 1790, Burke read Richard Price's sermon of 4 November 1789 entitled A Discourse on the Love of Our Country to the Revolution Society.
Burke criticised social contract theory by claiming that society is indeed a contract, although it is "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". The most famous passage in Burke's Reflections was his description of the events of 5–6 October 1789 and the part of Marie-Antoinette in them.
Burke's first public condemnation of the Revolution occurred on the debate in Parliament on the army estimates on 9 February 1790 provoked by praise of the Revolution by Pitt and Fox: Since the House had been prorogued in the summer much work was done in France.
[…] [In religion] the danger of their example is no longer from intolerance, but from Atheism; a foul, unnatural vice, foe to all the dignity and consolation of mankind; which seems in France, for a long time, to have been embodied into a faction, accredited, and almost avowed. In January 1790, Burke read Richard Price's sermon of 4 November 1789 entitled A Discourse on the Love of Our Country to the Revolution Society.
On 13 February 1790, a notice in the press said that shortly Burke would publish a pamphlet on the Revolution and its British supporters, but he spent the year revising and expanding it.
Priced at five shillings, it was more expensive than most political pamphlets, but by the end of 1790 it had gone through ten printings and sold approximately 17,500 copies.
Burke wrote on 29 November 1790: "I have received from the Duke of Portland, Lord Fitzwilliam, the Duke of Devonshire, Lord John Cavendish, Montagu (Frederick Montagu MP), and a long et cetera of the old Stamina of the Whiggs a most full approbation of the principles of that work and a kind indulgence to the execution".
He is without parallel in any age, excepting perhaps Lord Bacon and Cicero; and his works contain an ampler store of political and moral wisdom than can be found in any other writer whatever". In November 1790, François-Louis-Thibault de Menonville, a member of the National Assembly of France, wrote to Burke, praising Reflections and requesting more "very refreshing mental food" that he could publish.
When introducing his own bill in 1791 in opposition, Fox repeated almost verbatim the text of Burke's bill without acknowledgement.
The French translation ran to ten printings by June 1791. What the Glorious Revolution had meant was as important to Burke and his contemporaries as it had been for the last one hundred years in British politics.
Thomas Paine followed with the Rights of Man in 1791.
This Burke did in April 1791 when he published A Letter to a Member of the National Assembly.
On 6 May 1791, Burke used the opportunity to answer Fox during another debate in Parliament on the Quebec Bill and condemn the new French Constitution and "the horrible consequences flowing from the French idea of the Rights of Man".
Burke demonstrated his separation from the party on 5 June 1791 by writing to Fitzwilliam, declining money from him. Burke was dismayed that some Whigs, instead of reaffirming the principles of the Whig Party he laid out in the Reflections, had rejected them in favour of "French principles" and that they criticised Burke for abandoning Whig principles.
On 3 August 1791, Burke published his Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs in which he renewed his criticism of the radical revolutionary programmes inspired by the French Revolution and attacked the Whigs who supported them as holding principles contrary to those traditionally held by the Whig Party. Burke owned two copies of what has been called "that practical compendium of Whig political theory", namely The Tryal of Dr.
In one Sense of L'Ancien Régime I am clear that nothing else can reasonably be done. Burke delivered a speech on the debate of the Aliens Bill on 28 December 1792.
He remained in correspondence with his schoolmate from there, Mary Leadbeater, the daughter of the school's owner, throughout his life. In 1744, Burke started at Trinity College Dublin, a Protestant establishment which up until 1793 did not permit Catholics to take degrees.
Burke also supported the royalist uprising in La Vendée, describing it on 4 November 1793 in a letter to William Windham as "the sole affair I have much heart in".
Born in Dublin, Burke served as a member of parliament (MP) between 1766 and 1794 in the House of Commons of Great Britain with the Whig Party after moving to London in 1750. Burke was a proponent of underpinning virtues with manners in society and of the importance of religious institutions for the moral stability and good of the state.
La Vendée is a proof of this". On 20 June 1794, Burke received a vote of thanks from the House of Commons for his services in the Hastings Trial and he immediately resigned his seat, being replaced by his son Richard.
A tragic blow fell upon Burke with the loss of Richard in August 1794, to whom he was tenderly attached and in whom he saw signs of promise which were not patent to others and which in fact appear to have been non-existent, although this view may have rather reflected the fact that his son Richard had worked successfully in the early battle for Catholic emancipation.
Burke said: "It is not France extending a foreign empire over other nations: it is a sect aiming at universal empire, and beginning with the conquest of France". == Later life == In November 1795, there was a debate in Parliament on the high price of corn and Burke wrote a memorandum to Pitt on the subject.
Mackintosh later agreed with Burke's views, remarking in December 1796 after meeting him that Burke was "minutely and accurately informed, to a wonderful exactness, with respect to every fact relating to the French Revolution".
By March 1796, Burke had changed his mind: "Our Government and our Laws are beset by two different Enemies, which are sapping its foundations, Indianism, and Jacobinism.
Edmund Burke (; 12 January NS] 1729 – 9 July 1797) was an Irish statesman, economist, and philosopher.
Burke is convinced that the principles which he has endeavoured to maintain are necessary to the welfare and dignity of his country, and that these principles can be enforced only by the general persuasion of his sincerity. Burke died in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, on 9 July 1797 and was buried there alongside his son and brother. == Legacy == Burke is regarded by most political historians in the English-speaking world as a liberal conservative and the father of modern British conservatism.
These fragments were inserted into the memorandum after his death and published posthumously in 1800 as Thoughts and Details on Scarcity.
That coalition fell in 1783 and was succeeded by the long Tory administration of William Pitt the Younger which lasted until 1801.
William Windham spoke from the same bench in the House of Commons as Burke had when he had separated from Fox and an observer said Windham spoke "like the ghost of Burke" when he made a speech against peace with France in 1801.
Sack, 'The Memory of Burke and the Memory of Pitt: English Conservatism Confronts Its Past, 1806–1829', The Historical Journal, Vol.
Burke completed the work to the year 1216 and stopped; it was not published until after Burke's death, in an 1812 collection of his works, An Essay Towards an Abridgement of the English History.
In 1823, Canning wrote that he took Burke's "last works and words [as] the manual of my politics".
In 1770, it is known that Burke wrote in "Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents": In 1867, John Stuart Mill made a similar statement in an inaugural address delivered before the University of St.
165 issue 493, December 1897, 666–81. === Main sources === Clark, J.
Burke and the Nature of Politics (2 vols, 1957, 1964), a detailed modern biography of Burke; somewhat uncritical and sometimes superficial regarding politics Thomas Wellsted Copeland, 'Edmund Burke and the Book Reviews in Dodsley's Annual Register', Publications of the Modern Language Association, Vol.
Burke and the Nature of Politics (2 vols, 1957, 1964), a detailed modern biography of Burke; somewhat uncritical and sometimes superficial regarding politics Thomas Wellsted Copeland, 'Edmund Burke and the Book Reviews in Dodsley's Annual Register', Publications of the Modern Language Association, Vol.
The Writings and Speeches of Edmund Burke (9 vol 1981– ) vol 1 online; vol 2 online; vol 6 India: The Launching of the Hastings Impeachment, 1786–1788 online; vol 8 online; vol 9 online. === Further reading === Bourke, Richard (2015).
Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France (London: Allen & Unwin, 1985). Lock, F.
1978), pp. 462–79. Robert Eccleshall, English Conservatism since the Restoration (London: Unwin Hyman, 1990). Gibbons, Luke.
3 (Spring, 1991), pp. 395–421 in JSTOR Stanlis, Peter.
Bicentennial Essays (The University of Georgia Press, 1992). Bourke, Richard, Empire and Revolution: The Political Life of Edmund Burke (Princeton University Press, 2015). Bromwich, David, The Intellectual Life of Edmund Burke: From the Sublime and Beautiful to American Independence (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 2014).
"On Edmund Burke's Doctrine of Prescription; Or, An Appeal from the New to the Old Lawyers", Historical Journal, 11 (1968) opens the way towards an effective synthesis of Burke's ideas of History, Change and Prescription. Jim McCue, Edmund Burke and Our Present Discontents (The Claridge Press, 1997). Magnus, Philip.
Volume I: 1730–1784 (Clarendon Press, 1999). Lock, F.
New interdisciplinary essays (Manchester University Press, 2000). Whelan, Frederick G.
(ed.), Reflections on the Revolution in France: A Critical Edition (Stanford University Press: 2001). Cone, Carl B.
essays by scholars Ian Crowe, 'The career and political thought of Edmund Burke', Journal of Liberal History, Issue 40, Autumn 2003. Frederick Dreyer, 'The Genesis of Burke's Reflections', The Journal of Modern History, Vol.
1760–1832 (Cambridge University Press, 2004). Spinner, Jeff.
Volume II: 1784–1797 (Clarendon Press, 2006). Levin, Yuval.
Political Science Reviewer 2006 35: 115–31.
Byrne, Berfrois, 29 June 2011 The Liberalism/Conservatism of Edmund Burke and F.
206) (Springer, 2012) John Whale (ed.), Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France.
The Great Debate: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the Birth of Right and Left (Basic Books; 2013) 275 pages; their debate regarding the French Revolution. Lucas, Paul.
Bicentennial Essays (The University of Georgia Press, 1992). Bourke, Richard, Empire and Revolution: The Political Life of Edmund Burke (Princeton University Press, 2015). Bromwich, David, The Intellectual Life of Edmund Burke: From the Sublime and Beautiful to American Independence (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 2014).
A review: Freedom fighter, The Economist, 5 July 2014 Clark, J.
Bicentennial Essays (The University of Georgia Press, 1992). Bourke, Richard, Empire and Revolution: The Political Life of Edmund Burke (Princeton University Press, 2015). Bromwich, David, The Intellectual Life of Edmund Burke: From the Sublime and Beautiful to American Independence (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 2014).
(2019) Edmund Burke and the British Empire in the West Indies: Wealth, Power, and Slavery (Oxford University Press, 2019) online review Norman, Jesse (2014).
University of Chicago Press Uglow, Jenny (23 May 2019).
All text is taken from Wikipedia. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License .
Page generated on 2021-08-05