The Book, Cat, & Cat Book Lovers Almanac

of historical trivia regarding books, cats, and other animals. Actually this blog has evolved so that it is described better as a blog about cats in history and culture. And we take as a theme the advice of Aldous Huxley: If you want to be a writer, get some cats. Don't forget to see the archived articles linked at the bottom of the page.

January 12, 2016

January 12, 1729

Edmund Burke (January 12, 1729 to July 9, 1797) ) is called a conservative thinker nowadays, but the phrase "sensible and moderate" is a less divisive and more accurate description. Although I recently read a cogent analysis of his political views, which it would have been lovely to quote here, I cannot find it now. The upshot of the article was that Burke did not shift his views between the time he supported the American Revolution and his late condemnation of the French. That very common view -- that he switched from being a liberal to being a conservative - is inaccurate, and misses the subtlety of Burke's objectivity and analytical powers. The fact is Burke could view situations with a wider gaze than is now possible in our ideological times. He understood the leaders of the French Revolution were men not interested in democracy or the rights of people. They were in fact fanatics bent on seizing power for themselves regardless of the cost in bloodshed and terror. The rhetoric of their cause was a masquerade, though the leaders may have deluded themselves too. Edmund Burke could form judgments based on a knowledge of people, a talent even scarcer today.

Even before the situation in France became obvious to more people, he urged moderation on the factions, in these words from 1790:


France, by the perfidy of her leaders, has utterly disgraced the tone of lenient council in the cabinets of princes and disarmed it of its most potent topics. She has sanctified the dark suspicious maxims of tyrannous distrust—and taught kings to tremble at (what will hereafter be called) the delusive plausibilities of moral politicians. Sovereigns will consider those who advise them to place an unlimited confidence in their people as subverters of their thrones, as traitors who aim at their destruction, by leading their easy good nature, under specious pretenses, to admit combinations of bold and faithless men into a participation of their power. This alone (if there were nothing else) is an irreparable calamity to you and to mankind. Remember that your parliament of Paris told your king that in calling the states together, he had nothing to fear but the prodigal excess of their zeal in providing for the support of the throne. It is right that these men should hide their heads. It is right that they should bear their part in the ruin which their counsel has brought on their sovereign and their country.



The above quote illustrates the delicacy and insightfulness of Burke's thought. He had a knowledge of people, and we see this in another comment of his (from 1792 letter) which points to the difference between people on different sides of an argument. In this case, Burke, an Irishman, urges moderation regarding the division between Protestants and Catholics, which at that time was a wide and bitter gulf.


Pray, as far as in you lies, keep the Terms of common society with those, with whom you can keep no other. All of the possible Chariites of Life ought to be cultivated; and where we can neither be brethren nor friends, let us be kind neighbors and pleasant acquaintance. The Protestants of Ireland are just like the Catholicks - the Cat looking out of the Window and the Cat looking in at the Window - the difference of being in or out of power is the only difference between them; and power is a very corrupting thing; especially low and jobbish power -- This makes the Protestants a trifle worse -- as servility makes the Catholicks a little worse on the other hand.



We are indebted for this last quote to 
David Bromwich, who uses it in his 2014 book, The Intellectual Life of Edmund Burke


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