Page 24 - History 2020

philosophical study of the concept of “the sublime* is less well-known but highly

regarded). By the 1760’s however he was immersed in politics as a member of the
Marquess of Rockingham’s faction of the Whigs. He won a name as a defender of the
more radical causes such as relaxing anti-Catholic laws and criticized George III for his
attempts to control parliament and his overbearing policy towards the American
colonists. He also argued strongly, in a famous address to the electors of Bristol, that
MPs should be regarded as independent representatives of voters, not their
delegates, a doctrine that became one of the key conventions of the British
constitution. He may have begun to move in a more conservative direction when he

experienced the ferocity of the anti-Catholic Gordon Riots in London. He wasn’t a
success in office; in 1783 he became Paymaster-General in Fox-North coalition but
the ministry was too divided to achieve anything. By the outbreak of the French
Revolution in 1789 he was a rather isolated figure, detached from day-to-day politics,
which perhaps helped him take an equally detached and independent view of events
across the Channel.

What were Burke’s ideas?
The outbreak of the French Revolution was universally welcomed by liberal opinion in
Britain, including the Fox faction of the Whigs. The storming of the Bastille and the
setting up of a National Assembly to rewrite the French constitution were widely
celebrated. Many were swept up in the idealism of the moment, including the 19-
year old poet Wordsworth, who later wrote in an autobiographical poem (“The
Prelude” 1799-1805):

“Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,
But to be young was very heaven!”

Many Britons welcomed the French Revolution because they believed it would be
France’s version of their own Glorious Revolution of 1688. Burke disagreed, but his
problem was how to condemn the French one while defending the English one. From

this emerged his whole philosophy of conservatism. He argued that 1688 was merely
“a small and temporary deviation from the strict order of a regular hereditary
succession.” He continued, “Aristocratic leaders brought up the corps of citizens who
newly enlisted in this cause. Military obedience changed its object, but military
discipline was not for a moment interrupted in its principle. The nation kept the same
ranks, the same orders, the same privileges, the same franchises, the same rules for
property, the same subordination.” Regretfully he said, “You might, if you pleased,
have profited of our example, and have given to your recovered freedom a
correspondent dignity.”