Burke, Edmund

Burke, Edmund (1729–97). Whig politician and conservative political philosopher. Burke was born in Ireland to a catholic mother and protestant father. Brought up as a protestant, he was sent to Trinity College, Dublin. He studied law in London, but quickly turned his attention to writing. He became a member of Parliament in 1766 and remained an MP for virtually the rest of his life. Burke had an unrivalled gift for portraying the issues of the day in terms of general principles, and as a result many of his speeches contain disquisitions on political philosophy.

Burke has often been accused of inconsistency. His stance on the plight of catholics in Ireland—he deplored their savage treatment by the protestant ascendancy—and of Indians in Bengal is contrasted with his rejection of the idea of natural rights advanced by the French revolutionaries. Similarly, Burke's sympathy for the American colonists appears to contradict his insistence on the sovereign authority of Parliament. However, if we bear in mind the organizing ideas of his political philosophy, we can See that there is an underlying coherence in his writing. In his defence of the Irish catholics, the Bengali Indians, and the American colonists, Burke was not arguing that they had natural rights to determine their own destiny, but that there had been abuse of legitimate (i.e. traditional) authority. Similarly, we can See consistency in Burke's apparently contradictory endorsement of the 1688/9 Whig revolution in England, yet denunciation of the 1789 revolution in France. In both cases he sought to defend traditional modes of political authority. The Whig revolution in England was a revolution averted, in that it preserved the established Anglican state from an unconstitutional conversion by James II into a Roman catholic polity. By contrast the French Revolution was a real revolution, perpetrated against the wholesome foundations of a ‘noble and venerable castle’, the traditional and settled French state. His Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) is generally regarded as the epitome of conservatism, defending traditional political cultures. However, he recognized that some change was inevitable—indeed he held that a state without the means of change was without the means of its own conservation.

As a practising politician and statesman, Burke also left his mark. His impassioned defence of the formation of political parties as a means of resisting the unconstitutional influence of the crown was an important step in legitimizing party politics in Britain. Moreover, although he only held minor office (that of paymaster‐general) for two short spells, Burke exerted considerable influence on the government. His vehement condemnation of the revolution in France helped to stiffen anti‐French policy in Britain. Similarly the sympathetic tone he adopted toward the American colonists contributed towards the rapprochement which was eventually reached by the British government. Finally Burke's obsessive pursuit of the impeachment of Warren Hastings in the House of Lords for his rule as governor‐general of Bengal succeeded in creating an irresistible momentum for the reform of the East India Company.