1790
Half-length portrait of Irish statesman Edmund Burke, 1790. From the New York Public Library. (Photo via Smith Collection/Gado).
College Green, Dublin 2, Ireland
After graduating from school, Edmund Burke entered Trinity College, Dublin, for his university education.
Edmund Burke (1729-1797), 1889. Private Collection. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images)
Portrait of British statesman and orator Edmund Burke (1729-1797), a member of the British Parliament who advocated a liberal treatment in the government of the American colonies and supported the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade, 1780s. (Photo by Stock Montage)
Edmund Burke (1729-1797). Found in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London. (Photo by Art Media/Print Collector)
Portrait of British statesman and orator Edmund Burke (1729-1797), a member of the British Parliament who advocated a liberal treatment in the government of the American colonies and supported the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade, 1780s. (Photo by Stock Montage)
Edmund Burke (1729-1797). Found in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London. (Photo by Art Media/Print Collector)
Edmund Burke (1729-1797), 1889. Private Collection. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images)
Portrait of Edmund Burke (1729-1797). Found in the Collection of National Gallery of Ireland. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images)
College Green, Dublin 2, Ireland
After graduating from school, Edmund Burke entered Trinity College, Dublin, for his university education.
Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham
(In 1757 the 27-year-old Edmund Burke argued that our aest...)
In 1757 the 27-year-old Edmund Burke argued that our aesthetic responses are experienced as pure emotional arousal, unencumbered by intellectual considerations. In so doing he overturned the Platonic tradition in aesthetics that had prevailed from antiquity until the eighteenth century and replaced metaphysics with psychology and even physiology as the basis for the subject. Burke's theory of beauty encompasses the female form, nature, art, and poetry, and he analyses our delight in sublime effects that thrill and excite us. His revolution in method continues to have repercussions in the aesthetic theories of today, and his revolution in sensibility has paved the way for literary and artistic movements from the Gothic novel through Romanticism, twentieth-century painting, and beyond.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00QQGA3MW/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i1
1757
(In the book, Burke presents the points with which he disa...)
In the book, Burke presents the points with which he disagrees with the members of the National Assembly who were responsible for the French Revolution. Originally written as a letter in response to a young Parisian and later expanded upon and published in book format, "Reflections on the Revolution in France" presents a compelling rationale against the war.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FC21E6/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0
1790
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002JF1NBO/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i10
1999
(Written at a time when most of Europe supported the Frenc...)
Written at a time when most of Europe supported the French Revolution, Edmund Burke’s prescient and, at the time, controversial denunciation of its mob rule predicted the Terror, began the modern conservative tradition, and still serves as a warning to those who seek to reshape societies through violence.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003P9XDT8/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i5
2008
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BSB5NAC/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i11
2013
Edmund Burke was born on 12 January 1729, in Dublin, Ireland, to a middle-class family. His mother suffered from what Burke called "a cruel nervous disorder," and his relations with his authoritarian father, a Dublin attorney, were unhappy.
After attending Trinity College, Dublin, Burke in 1750 crossed to England to study law at the Middle Temple. But he unconsciously resisted his father's plans for him and made little progress in the law. Indecision marked his life at this time: he described himself as "a runaway son" and his "manner of life" as "chequered with various designs." In 1755 he considered applying for a post in the Colonies but dropped the idea when his father objected.
Edmund Burke began to support himself by writing for a bookseller, traveling around England and France. In 1755, he contemplated moving over to the colonies, but gave up the idea when his father objected.
In the spring of 1756, he had his first major work, A Vindication of Natural Society: A View of the Miseries and Evils Arising to Mankind published. Intended as a satire aimed at Lord Bolingbroke's theory of deism, the work is considered to be the first literary expression of philosophical anarchism.
In 1757, he published his second work, the work he had started while he was studying at Trinity College. Titled, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, it attracted the attention of established philosophers and writers like Immanuel Kant, Denis Diderot, and G. E. Lessing.
In the same year, he co-authored An Account of the European Settlements. He also signed a contract to write the history of England from the time of Julius Caesar to the end of Queen Anne’s reign. Although he began working on it immediately, he stopped in the year 1216. Many believe that he gave up the project sometime in 1762 because David Hume published his History of England, which spanned more or less the same period.
Meanwhile in 1758 Burke co-founded The Annual Register with Robert Dodsley, remaining its chief editor till 1789. Originally known as A View of the History, Politics, and Literature of the Year, it recorded events happening around the world on a yearly basis. Till 1766, he was the only major contributor to the journal.
Also in 1758, Edmund Burke was introduced to William Gerard Hamilton. In 1761, when Hamilton was appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland, Burke became his private secretary and moved to Dublin with him. During this period, he once again became conscious about the extent of persecution faced by the Catholics.
After about three years, a conflict developed between Burke and Hamilton. Therefore, he left his position and returned to London. He now received patronage from Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham.
When in July 1765, Rockingham became the Prime Minister of Great Britain, he appointed Burke as his private secretary. In the following December, he entered the House of Commons from Wendover, a borough constituency of the House. His maiden speech was highly appreciated by all.
Burke now focused on reconciliation with the American colonies and persuaded the government to repeal the much-loathed Stamp Act. This made him popular among many colonists.
When in 1766, Rockingham's government fell, Burke was offered a similar post in the new set up. However, he chose to remain with Rockingham and sit in the opposition. The two remained lifelong friends. He also served as the elder statesman's secretary until the latter's death in 1782.
Concurrently, he also continued writing. In 1769, he published Observations on a Late State of the Nation in response to The Present State of the Nation, written by British Whig statesman George Grenville.
Sitting in the opposition, Burke also took a leading role in the debate concerning the constitutional role of the executives. At that time, the main problem was who would have greater control over the governance: the king or the parliament?
King George III, who had come to the throne in 1760, was trying to reassert his rights. While Burke argued strongly against unrestrained royal power, he also talked about the role of political parties in preventing abuses and published his views as Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents on 23 April 1770.
Subsequently, he argued for a free market in corn and secured the right to publish debates held in parliament. He was also instrumental in the passing of the Repeal of Certain Laws Act 1772.
In 1774, he entered the House of Commons from Bristol, a great trading city with a genuine electoral contest. Yet when in 1778, a parliamentary motion for revising restrictions on Irish trade was brought in, he supported it whole-heartedly. This he did in spite of opposition from the members of his constituency.
In the same year, he published Two Letters to Gentlemen of Bristol on the Bills relative to the Trade of Ireland. In it, he said that, "...the gain of others is not necessarily our loss, but on the contrary an advantage by causing a greater demand for such wares as we have for sale."
Although Burke considered himself English, he had full sympathy for the Irish and did much to alleviate their misery. Therefore, when George Savile introduced bills to repeal some of the penal laws against Catholics, Burke supported him wholeheartedly.
However his stand on such issues was not appreciated by his electorates and when the election was held in 1780, he lost the seat. For the rest of his political career, he represented Malton, another pocket borough under the Marquess of Rockingham's estate.
In 1781, Burke was appointed Chairman of the Commons Select Committee on East Indian Affair and was charged with investigating "alleged injustices in Bengal, the war with Hyder Ali, and other Indian difficulties." From now on, India became one of his prime concerns.
In March 1782, Rockingham returned to power. He appointed Burke Paymaster of the Forces and a Privy Counselor without a seat in Cabinet. As Rockingham died in July 1782, Burke did have not much time on hand, yet he managed to introduce two acts and abolish 134 offices.
In April 1783, when Lord Frederick North formed a government in coalition with Charles James Fox, Burke was once again appointed to the post of Paymaster of the Forces. However, the coalition failed within a few months and William Pitt the Younger of Tory party became the new Prime Minister.
For the rest of his political life, Burke remained in the opposition, but continued to work. It was mainly due to his effort that Warren Hastings was impeached in 1796.
In 1789, he was contemplating retirement. But as the French Revolution erupted, Burke became agitated and wrote Reflections on the Revolution in France. The work, published in 1790, anticipated the worst excesses that were yet to come.
In 1794, Burke retired from Parliament due to his perceived failure to impeach Warren Hastings. However, he did not stop working and spent the rest of his life establishing the Jacobins as a ruthless and malevolent force.
In 1796, he published Letters on a Regicide Peace or Letters... on the Proposals for Peace with the Regicide Directory of France. It was a series of four letters written to the British Prime Minister William Pitt, in which he voiced his opposition to any negotiation with the new French leadership.
In the English-speaking world, Burke is regarded by most political experts as the father of modern Anglo-conservatism. His liberal conservatism, which opposed governing based on abstract ideas, and preferred "organic" reform, can be contrasted with the autocratic conservatism of Continental figures such as Joseph de Maistre.
Today Edmund Burke is best remembered for his support for the emancipation of the Catholics. Although he knew his support for the Irish cause would not be appreciated by his constituents, he did not hesitate to support motions that called for revision of the restrictions on Irish trade or repeal of the penal law.
(Written at a time when most of Europe supported the Frenc...)
2008(In 1757 the 27-year-old Edmund Burke argued that our aest...)
1757(In the book, Burke presents the points with which he disa...)
1790Burke sharply criticized deism and atheism and emphasized Christianity as a vehicle of social progress. He vigorously defended the Church of England but also demonstrated sensitivity to Catholic concerns.
Burke's theory of government was essentially conservative. He profoundly distrusted the people and believed in the divine right of the aristocracy to govern. "All direction of public humour and opinion must originate in a few," he wrote in 1775. "God and nature never meant [the people] to think or act without guidance or direction." Yet all Burke's writings, despite their rather narrow propaganda purpose, include valuable generalizations on human conduct.
Burke found difficulty in applying his political philosophy to practical issues. He was one of the first to realize the implications of Britain's problems with colonial America. He saw the British Empire as a family, with the parent exercising a benevolent authority over the children. Perhaps influenced by his own upbringing, he believed the British government to have been harsh and tyrannical when it should have been lenient. "When any community is subordinately connected with another," he wrote, "the great danger of the connexion is the extreme pride and self-complacency of the superior."
In 1774 Burke argued against retaining the tea duty on the Colonies in his celebrated Speech on American Taxation, and twice in 1775 he proposed conciliation with the Colonies. His conception of the British Empire as an "aggregate of many states under one common head" came as near as was possible in the 18th century to reconciling British authority with colonial autonomy. Yet at the same time he repeatedly declared his belief in the legislative supremacy of the British Parliament. Thus the American war split Burke in two. He could face neither American independence nor the prospect of a British victory. "I do not know," he wrote in August 1776, "how to wish success to those whose victory is to separate us from a large and noble part of our empire. Still less do I wish success to injustice, oppression, and absurdity … No good can come of any event in this war to any virtuous interest."
In Ireland, Burke's sympathies were with the persecuted Roman Catholics, who were "reduced to beasts of burden" and asked only for that elementary justice all subjects had a right to expect from their government. He preferred their cause to that of the Protestant Anglo-Irish, who were striving to throw off the authority of the British Parliament. With Irish nationalism and its constitutional grievances he had little sympathy. "I am sure the people ought to eat whether they have septennial Parliaments or not," he wrote in 1766. As on the American problem, Burke always counseled moderation in Ireland. "I believe," he said only 2 months before his death, "there are very few cases which will justify a revolt against the established government of a country, let its constitution be what it will."
Burke's writings on France, though the most profound of his works, cannot be read as a complete statement of his views on politics. Burke, in fact, never gave a systematic exposition of his fundamental beliefs but appealed to them always in relation to specific issues. But it is possible to regard his writings as an integrated whole in terms of the constant principles underlying his practical positions.
These principles are, in essence, an exploration of the concept of "nature," or "natural law." Burke conceives the emotional and spiritual life of man as harmony within the larger order of the universe. Natural impulse, that is, contains within itself self-restraint and self-criticism; the moral and spiritual life is continuous with it, generated from it and essentially sympathetic to it. It follows that society and state make possible the full realization of human potentiality, embody a common good, and represent a tacit or explicit agreement on norms and ends. The political community acts ideally as a unity.
This interpretation of nature and the natural order implies deep respect for the historical process and the usages and social achievements built up over time. Therefore, social change is not merely possible but also inevitable and desirable. But the scope and the role of thought operating as a reforming instrument on society as a whole is limited. It should act under the promptings of specific tensions or specific possibilities, in close union with the detailed process of change, rather than in large speculative schemes involving extensive interference with the stable, habitual life of society. Also, it ought not to place excessive emphasis on some ends at the expense of others; in particular, it should not give rein to a moral idealism (as in the French Revolution) that sets itself in radical opposition to the existing order. Such attempts cut across the natural processes of social development, initiating uncontrollable forces or provoking a dialectical reaction of excluded factors. Burke's hope, in effect, is not a realization of particular ends, such as the "liberty" and "equality" of the French Revolution, but an intensification and reconciliation of the multifarious elements of the good life that the community exists to forward.
In his own day, Burke's writings on France were an important inspiration to German and French counterrevolutionary thought. His influence in England has been more diffuse, more balanced, and more durable. He stands as the original exponent of long-lived constitutional conventions, the idea of party, and the role of the member of Parliament as a free representative, not delegate. More generally, his remains the most persuasive statement of certain inarticulate political and social principles long and widely held in England: the validity of status and hierarchy and the limited role of politics in the life of society.
Edmund Burke was emotional and hysterical by nature. He had enormous persistence, courage, concentration, and energy.
Physical Characteristics: Towards the end of his life Edmund Burke developed some kind of stomach ailments.
In 1757, Edmund Burke married Jane Mary Nugent, daughter of Doctor Christopher Nugent, the Irish doctor who played a pivotal role in guiding him when he first came to London. She was sixteen when he first saw her. They first developed a friendship, which soon turned into romance.
The couple had one surviving son, Richard Burke, born on 9 February 1758. He later became a barrister and succeeded his father as a Member of Parliament from Malton, North Yorkshire. Unfortunately, soon after this, he fell ill and died on 2 August 1794.
