Title page from Reflections

Reflections on the Revolution in France is a work of political commentary written by statesman and philosopher Edmund Burke, first published on 1 November 1790. The Reflections constitute one of the best-known intellectual attacks on the French Revolution, which was then in its early stages. In the 20th century the work exerted considerable influence within both conservative and classical liberal intellectual circles, where its arguments were re-cast into a critique of Communism and other Socialist revolutionary political programmes. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... For other uses, see Philosophy (disambiguation). ... Edmund Burke (January 12, 1729[1] – July 9, 1797) was an Anglo-Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist, and philosopher, who served for many years in the British House of Commons as a member of the Whig party. ... is the 305th day of the year (306th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1790 (MDCCXC) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 11-day slower Julian calendar). ... The French Revolution (1789–1815) was a period of political and social upheaval in the political history of France and Europe as a whole, during which the French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and Catholic clergy, underwent radical change to forms based on... Conservatism is a term used to describe political philosophies that favor tradition and gradual change, where tradition refers to religious, cultural, or nationally defined beliefs and customs. ... Classical liberalism (also known as traditional liberalism[1] and laissez-faire liberalism[2]) is a doctrine stressing the importance of human rationality, individual property rights, natural rights, the protection of civil liberties, constitutional limitations of government, free markets, and individual freedom from restraint as exemplified in the writings of Adam... This article is about the form of society and political movement. ... Socialism is a broad array of ideologies and political movements with the goal of a socio-economic system in which property and the distribution of wealth are subject to control by the community for the purposes of increasing social and economic equality and cooperation. ...

Background

Edmund Burke served for many years in the British House of Commons as a representative of the Whig party, closely allied with liberal politician Lord Rockingham. During his career, Burke had vigorously defended constitutional limits to the authority of the Crown, denounced the persecution of Catholics in his native Ireland, aired the grievances of the inhabitants of Britain's American colonies, supported the American Revolution, and vigorously pursued the impeachment of Warren Hastings, the governor-general of Bengal, for corruption and abuse of power. He was therefore respected by many democratic liberals in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Continental Europe. Type Lower House Speaker Michael Martin, (Non-affiliated) since October 23, 2000 Leader Harriet Harman, (Labour) since June 28, 2007 Shadow Leader Theresa May, (Conservative) since May 5, 2005 Members 659 Political groups Labour Party Conservative Party Liberal Democrats Scottish National Party Plaid Cymru Democratic Unionist Party Sinn Féin... The Whigs (with the Tories) are often described as one of two political parties in England and later the United Kingdom from the late 17th to the mid 19th centuries. ... Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham (May 13, 1730 – July 1, 1782) was a British Whig statesman, most notable for his two terms as Whig Prime Minister of Great Britain. ... John Trumbulls Declaration of Independence, showing the five-man committee in charge of drafting the Declaration in 1776 as it presents its work to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia The American Revolution refers to the period during the last half of the 18th century in which the Thirteen... Warren Hastings (December 6, 1732 - August 22, 1818) was the first governor-general of British India, from 1773 to 1786. ... Governor-General (or Governor General) is a term used both historically and currently to designate the appointed representative of a head of state or their government for a particular territory, historically in a colonial context, but no longer necessarily in that form. ... For other uses, see Bengal (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Europe (disambiguation). ...

In 1789, shortly after the Fall of the Bastille, a young aristocratic Frenchman named Charles-Jean-François Depont, who had met Burke during a previous trip to Britain, asked Burke for his impressions of the turbulent political developments in France. Burke responded with two letters to Depont. The second, much longer letter, was published several months later as Reflections on the Revolution in France. The storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789 was an important development in, and later a symbol of, the French Revolution. ...

Arguments

Burke argued that the French Revolution would end in disaster because it was founded on abstract notions that purported to be rational but in fact ignored the complexities of human nature and society. Burke held an essentially pragmatic view of politics and viewed with contempt the vision of French Enlightenment intellectuals, such as the Marquis de Condorcet, that politics could be reduced to a rigorous deductive system akin to mathematics. The Enlightenment (French: ; German: ; Italian: ; Portuguese: ) was an eighteenth century movement in European and American philosophy — some classifications also include 17th century philosophy (usually called the Age of Reason). ... “Condorcet” redirects here. ... For other meanings of mathematics or uses of math and maths, see Mathematics (disambiguation) and Math (disambiguation). ...

As a Protestant and a Whig, Burke expressly repudiated the notion that the authority of monarchs was divinely instituted or that the people had no right to depose an oppressive government. On the other hand, he believed in the central roles of private property, tradition, and "prejudice" (by which he meant the popular adherence to values that lack a conscious rational justification) in giving citizens an interest in the well-being of their country and in maintaining social order. Burke argued for gradual, constitutional reform over revolutionary upheaval, in all but the most qualified of cases. Burke also emphasized that a political doctrine founded on abstract notions about "liberty" and the "rights of man" could easily be used by those in power to justify tyrannical measures. Instead, he called for the constitutional enactment of specific, concrete rights and liberties as a bulwark against oppression by the government. Protestantism encompasses the forms of Christian faith and practice that originated with the doctrines of the Reformation. ... This page deals with property as ownership rights. ...

Burke argued that people were generally individuals of "untaught feelings" and that people cherished prejudices to a "considerable degree." Each individual's intellect is limited and therefore individuals are better off by availing themselves to the "general bank and capital of nations and of ages"--general popular prejudices. Burke favoured prejudice because of its utility; prejudices, with their "latent wisdom," gave permanence to wise actions and are of "ready application in an emergency". Prejudice, Burke contends, "renders a man's virtue his habit".^[1]

The general instability and disorder after the Revolution, Burke predicted, would make the army "mutinous and full of faction." Then a "popular general" will command the allegiance of the soldiery and when that happens he will be "master of your assembly, the master of your whole republic."^[2] This prophecy was fulfilled two years after Burke's death on the 18th Brumaire. Napoléon Bonaparte in the coup détat of 18 brumaire. ...

Influence

Reflections on the Revolution in France was widely read after its publication, but much of the immediate reaction to it was very negative. Burke's critics made much of the intemperate language he used to attack the leaders of the French Revolution, his eulogizing of King Louis XVI of France and his wife, and the various factual inaccuracies concerning specific events in France and the political arrangements of that country's new constitution. Thomas Jefferson, William Hazlitt, Charles James Fox, and other liberal figures who had until then admired Burke proceeded to denounce the author of the Reflections as a reactionary. Conservative Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger initially found in Burke's book only "rhapsodies in which there is much to admire and nothing to agree with." Some observers speculated that Burke had either become mentally unbalanced or that he was secretly a Catholic and was therefore outraged by the new French government's expropriation of Church lands and other anti-clerical policies. Thomas Paine published a rejoinder to Burke in his Rights of Man, while Mary Wollstonecraft did as much in A Vindication of the Rights of Men. On the other hand, those who did admire Burke's work when it appeared tended to be genuine reactionaries, such as King George III and the Savoyard philosopher Joseph de Maistre. Louis XVI, born Louis-Auguste de France (23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793) ruled as King of France and Navarre from 1774 until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792. ... Marie-Antoinette, Queen of France and Archduchess of Austria (born November 1755 – executed 16 October 1793) Daughter of Maria Theresa of Austria, wife of Louis XVI and mother of Louis XVII. She was guillotined at the height of the French Revolution. ... Thomas Jefferson (13 April 1743 N.S.–4 July 1826) was the third President of the United States (1801–09), the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and one of the most influential Founding Fathers for his promotion of the ideals of Republicanism in the United States. ... // William Hazlitt (10 April 1778 – 18 September 1830) was an English writer remembered for his humanistic essays and literary criticism, often esteemed the greatest English literary critic after Samuel Johnson. ... Statue of Charles James Fox in Bloomsbury Square, erected 1816. ... Reactionary (or reactionist) is a political epithet, generally used as a pejorative, originally applied in the context of the French Revolution to counter-revolutionaries who wished to restore the real or imagined conditions of the monarchical Ancien Régime. ... The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is, in practice, the political leader of the United Kingdom. ... William Pitt the Younger (28 May 1759 – 23 January 1806) was a British politician of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. ... For other persons of the same name, see Thomas Paine (disambiguation). ... Thomas Paine wrote the Rights of Man in 1791 as a reply to Reflections on the Revolution in France by Edmund Burke, and as such, it is a work glorifying the French Revolution. ... Mary Wollstonecraft (circa 1797) by John Opie Mary Wollstonecraft (27 April 1759 – 10 September 1797) was a British writer, philosopher and feminist. ... Title page from the second edition of A Vindication of the Rights of Men, the first to carry Wollstonecrafts name A Vindication of the Rights of Men, in a Letter to the Right Honourable Edmund Burke; Occasioned by His Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) is a political... George III redirects here. ... Flag of Savoy This article is about the historical region of Savoy. ... Joseph de Maistre (portrait by Karl Vogel von Vogelstein, 1810) Joseph-Marie, Comte de Maistre (April 1, 1753- February 26, 1821) was a French-speaking Savoyard lawyer, diplomat, writer, and philosopher. ...

The situation changed after many of Burke's predictions for the outcome of the French Revolution came true: the execution of Louis XVI and his wife was followed by the Reign of Terror during which hundreds of thousands of citizens were arrested and tens of thousands executed for political offences. The chaos and violence that followed the revolution eventually led to a reaction in which General Napoleon Bonaparte became a military dictator. Most of Burke's fellow Whigs joined him in opposition to the revolutionary government of France, and the Reflections became Burke's most significant intellectual legacy after his death in 1797. For other uses of terror, see Terror. ... Bonaparte as general Napoleon Bonaparte ( 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821) was a general of the French Revolution and was the ruler of France as First Consul (Premier Consul) of the French Republic from November 11, 1799 to May 18, 1804, then as Emperor of the French (Empereur des... A military dictatorship is a form of government wherein the political power resides with the military; it is similar but not identical to a stratocracy, a state ruled directly by the military. ...

In the 19th century, positivist French historian Hippolyte Taine echoed Burke's arguments in his monumental Origins of Contemporary France (1876–1885). Taine argued that the essential fault of the French system of government was the centralization of power. In his view, far from promoting democratic control, the French Revolution had transferred power from the aristocracy to an "enlightened" elite that proved even more illiberal. In the 20th century many Western observers found in Burke's Reflections arguments that applied as well to Socialist revolutions as they had to the French Revolution. Burke therefore became an influential figure in Western conservative and classical liberal circles. Two of the most important classical liberals of the 20th century, Friedrich Hayek and Karl Popper, acknowledged their debt to Burke. Positivism is a philosophy that states that the only authentic knowledge is scientific knowledge, and that such knowledge can only come from positive affirmation of theories through strict scientific method. ... Portrait of Hippolyte Taine on French postage stamp of 1966 Hippolyte Adolphe Taine (April 21, 1828 - March 5, 1893) was a French critic and historian. ... Aristocrat redirects here. ... The Enlightenment (French: ; German: ; Italian: ; Portuguese: ) was an eighteenth century movement in European and American philosophy — some classifications also include 17th century philosophy (usually called the Age of Reason). ... Socialism is a broad array of ideologies and political movements with the goal of a socio-economic system in which property and the distribution of wealth are subject to control by the community for the purposes of increasing social and economic equality and cooperation. ... Friedrich August von Hayek, CH (May 8, 1899 in Vienna – March 23, 1992 in Freiburg) was an Austrian-born British economist and political philosopher known for his defense of liberal democracy and free-market capitalism against socialist and collectivist thought in the mid-20th century. ... Sir Karl Raimund Popper CH FRS FBA (July 28, 1902 â€“ September 17, 1994) was an Austrian and British[1] philosopher and a professor at the London School of Economics. ...

Quotations

• "Make the Revolution a parent of settlement, and not a nursery of future revolutions."

• "In my course I have known, and, according to my measure, have co-operated with great men; and I have never yet seen any plan which has not been mended by the observations of those who were much inferior in understanding to the person who took the lead in the business."

• "I cannot [...] give praise or blame to anything which relates to human actions, and human concerns, on a simple view of the object, as it stands stripped of every relation, in all the nakedness and solitude of metaphysical abstraction. Circumstances [...] are what render every civil and political scheme beneficial or noxious to mankind. Abstractedly speaking, government, as well as liberty, is good; yet could I, in common sense, ten years ago, have felicitated France on her enjoyment of a government (for she then had a government) without inquiring what the nature of that government was? [...] Can I now congratulate the same nation upon its freedom? Is it because liberty in the abstract may be classed amongst the blessings of mankind, that I am seriously to felicitate a madman, who has escaped from the protecting restraint and wholesome darkness of his cell, on his restoration to the enjoyment of light and liberty? [...] I should, therefore, suspend my congratulations on the new liberty of France until I was informed how it had been combined with government, with public force, with the discipline and obedience of armies, with the collection of an effective and well-distributed revenue, with morality and religion, with the solidity of property, with peace and order, with civil and social manners. All these (in their way) are good things, too, and without them liberty is not a benefit whilst it lasts, and is not likely to continue long.

• "The age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, oeconomists, and calculators, has succeeded."

• "Learning will be cast into the mire and trodden down under the hoofs of a swinish multitude."

• "To make us love our country, our country ought to be lovely."

• "A spirit of innovation is generally the result of a selfish temper and confined views."

• "Society is indeed a contract. [...] 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."

Notes

External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Reflections on the Revolution in France

• Text of Reflections on the Revolution in France, by Edmund Burke
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