Edmund Burke and enlightenment sociability: Justice, honour and the principles of government

History of Political Thought

Volumn 21, Issue 4, 2000, Pages 632-656

  Bourke, Richard ^a  

^a QUEEN MARY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON   (United Kingdom)

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EID: 0034356059     PISSN: 0143781X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
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References (93)

1. I would like to thank David Armitage, David Bromwich, James Chandler, John Dunn, Iain Hampsher-Monk, Istvan Hont, Ed Hundert, J.G.A. Pocock, Chris Reid and Michael Sonenscher for their comments and advice on this article. Responsibility for the remaining errors lies with me.
2. See Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws, ed. Anne Cohler, Basia Miller and Harold Stone (Cambridge, 1989), I, XI, 6: 'Most kingdoms in Europe enjoy a moderate government because the prince who is invested with the first two [legislative and executive] powers leaves the third [judicial] to his subjects.'
3. Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), in The Writings and Speeches of Edmund Burke, ed. Paul Langford (Oxford, 1981), VIII, p. 253.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid., p. 147.
6. Ibid., p. 146.
7. Montesquieu, Spirit of the Laws, I, iii, 7.
8. Ibid., I, iv, 2.
9. Thomas Hobbes, De Cive, in The Clarendon Editions of the Philosophical Works of Thomas Hobbes, ed. Howard Warrender (Oxford, 1983), II, pp. 91-2.
10. Voltaire, Le Siècle de Louis XIV (2 vols., Berlin, 1951), I, p. 5, and II, p. 138.
11. Ibid., II, p. 138, and II, p. 110.
12. Ibid., II, pp. 139-41.
13. Montesquieu, Spirit of the Laws, I, ii, 4.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid., III, xix, 27.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid., II, xi, 6.
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid.
21. Ibid.
22. Ibid., I, iii, 7.
23. Burke, Reflections, p. 233.
24. Ibid., p. 186.
25. Ibid., p. 188. The Latin citation - 'all good men always take the part of the high-born' - is from Cicero, Pro Sestio, ix, 21.
26. Ibid., p. 188. The Latin citation - 'all good men always take the part of the high-born' - is from Cicero, Pro Sestio, ix, 21.
27. Montesquieu, Spirit of the Laws, III, xix, 16.
28. Letter to a Member of the National Assembly (1791), in Writings and Speeches ed. Langford, VIII, p. 332.
29. Ibid.
30. An Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs (1791), in The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke (16 vols., London, 1803-27), VI, p. 216.
31. The phrase appears in Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, ed. D.D. Raphael and A.L. Macfie (Oxford, 1976), II, ii, 3, 2.
32. The Correspondence of Adam Smith, ed. E.C. Mossner and J.S. Ross (Oxford, 1977), 'Letter from Edmund Burke', pp. 46-7.
33. Smith, Theory of Moral Sentiments, I, iii, 2, 1.
34. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Oeuvres Complètes, ed. Bernard Gagnebin and Marcel Raymond (4 vols., Paris, 1959-69), III, p. 601.
35. Smith, Theory of Moral Sentiments, II, ii, 2, 1.
36. Ibid., I, iii, 1, 9n.
37. Fourth Letter on a Regicide Peace, in Writings and Speeches, ed. Langford, IX, p. 110.
38. Burke, Reflections, p. 141. On the centrality of religion to Burke's political thinking, see Iain Hampsher-Monk, A History of Political Thought (Oxford, 1992), pp. 278-82.
39. Burke, Reflections, p. 141. On the centrality of religion to Burke's political thinking, see Iain Hampsher-Monk, A History of Political Thought (Oxford, 1992), pp. 278-82.
40. Smith, Theory of Moral Sentiments, I, i, 5, 7.
41. Burke, Reflections, pp. 130-1.
42. Ibid., p. 144.
43. Burke, An Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs, p. 216.
44. Burke, Reflections, p. 102.
45. John Millar, Observations Concerning the Distinction of Ranks in Society (London, 1771), p. 187.
46. For Millar's reaction to these events, see John Craig, 'Account of the Life and Writings of John Millar, Esq.', in John Millar, The Origin of the Distinction of Ranks (Edinburgh, 4th edn., 1806), pp. cii-ciii.
47. John Millar, An Historical View of the English Government from the Settlement of the Saxons in Britain to the Revolution in 1688, To Which are Subjoined, Some Dissertations Connected with the History of the Government from the Revolution to the Present Time (4 vols.; London, 1803), IV, pp. 136-37.
48. Ibid., p. 292.
49. Ibid., pp. 286-7.
50. Ibid., p. 307n.
51. Ibid., p. 308.
52. See ibid., p. 310.
53. Thoughts on the Present Discontents, in Writings and Speeches, ed. Langford II, p. 316.
54. Burke, Reflections, p. 129.
55. Ibid., p. 97.
56. See Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, The Spectator, ed. Donald F. Bond (5 vols., Oxford, 1965), II, p. 463; no. 248.
57. Burke, Reflections, p. 102. It is noticeable that the dynamic relationship between the 'passions' and the 'interests', discussed at length by Albert Hirschman in his The Passions and the Interests: Political Arguments for Capitalism before Its Triumph (Princeton, 1977), takes the form in this passage of a contest between ability and property.
58. Burke, Reflections, p. 102. It is noticeable that the dynamic relationship between the 'passions' and the 'interests', discussed at length by Albert Hirschman in his The Passions and the Interests: Political Arguments for Capitalism before Its Triumph (Princeton, 1977), takes the form in this passage of a contest between ability and property.
59. Joseph Addison, 'The Campaign' 1.40, cited in Thoughts on the Present Discontents, p. 317. For a more general discussion of friendship, see Addison's treatment of Cicero's De Amicitia, in the Spectator, I, 289; no. 68: 'Tully was the first who observed, That Friendship imposes Happiness and abates Misery, by the doubling of our Joy and dividing of our Grief.'
60. Joseph Addison, 'The Campaign' 1.40, cited in Thoughts on the Present Discontents, p. 317. For a more general discussion of friendship, see Addison's treatment of Cicero's De Amicitia, in the Spectator, I, 289; no. 68: 'Tully was the first who observed, That Friendship imposes Happiness and abates Misery, by the doubling of our Joy and dividing of our Grief.'
61. Burke, Reflections, p. 237.
62. The classic treatment of Burke's reaction to the system of assignats is J.G.A. Pocock's 'The Political Economy of Burke's Analysis of the French Revolution', in Virtue, Commerce, and History (Cambridge, 1983). See also Pocock's Introduction to his edition of Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France (Indianapolis, 1987).
63. The classic treatment of Burke's reaction to the system of assignats is J.G.A. Pocock's 'The Political Economy of Burke's Analysis of the French Revolution', in Virtue, Commerce, and History (Cambridge, 1983). See also Pocock's Introduction to his edition of Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France (Indianapolis, 1987).
64. Burke, Reflections, p. 103.
65. Ibid., pp. 238, 240.
66. Ibid., p. 242.
67. Ibid., p. 120.
68. Ibid., p. 242.
69. Ibid.
70. Ibid.
71. Ibid.
72. Annual Register (1767), pp. 307-16.
73. Adam Ferguson, An Essay on the History of Civil Society (Edinburgh, 1767), p. 104.
74. Ibid., p. 107.
75. Ibid., pp. 284-5.
76. Ibid., p. 286.
77. Burke, Reflections, p. 93.
78. Ibid., p. 95.
79. Ibid., p. 128.
80. Ibid., p. 129.
81. Ibid., p. 127.
82. See William Robertson, The History of the Reign of the Emperor Charles V, With a View of the Progress of Society in Europe, from the Subversion of the Roman Empire, to the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century (2 vols., Dublin, 1762), I, pp. 62-3; and John Millar, Distinction of Ranks, pp. 57-62.
83. See William Robertson, The History of the Reign of the Emperor Charles V, With a View of the Progress of Society in Europe, from the Subversion of the Roman Empire, to the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century (2 vols., Dublin, 1762), I, pp. 62-3; and John Millar, Distinction of Ranks, pp. 57-62.
84. Ferguson, Essay on the History of Civil Society, p. 311.
85. Burke, Reflections, p. 130. For a discussion of Burke's debt to, and dissent from, 'Hume, Robertson, Smith and Millar', on the priority of manners over production and exchange as an instrument of civilization, see once again J.G.A. Pocock, 'The Political Economy of Burke's Analysis of the French Revolution', in Virtue, Commerce, History, pp. 197-9.
86. Burke, Reflections, p. 130. For a discussion of Burke's debt to, and dissent from, 'Hume, Robertson, Smith and Millar', on the priority of manners over production and exchange as an instrument of civilization, see once again J.G.A. Pocock, 'The Political Economy of Burke's Analysis of the French Revolution', in Virtue, Commerce, History, pp. 197-9.
87. For a contrary view, see Robertson's History of the Reign of the Emperor Charles V, I, p. 71: 'Commerce tends to wear off those prejudices which maintain distinction and animosity between nations. It softens and polishes the manners of men. It unites them by one of the strongest of all ties, the desire of supplying their mutual wants.'
88. Burke, Reflections, p. 127.
89. Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, Essai sur les privilèges (Paris, 1788), p. 10.
90. Ibid., pp. 13-14.
91. Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, Qu'est-ce que le Tiers-État? (Paris, 3rd edn., 1789), p. 13.
92. Burke, Reflections, p. 71.
93. Writings and Speeches, ed. Langford, IX, p. 242.