Abstract

This dissertation examines the late Eighteenth Century debate in England and France over the foundation, structure, and purpose of political society. The debate, given a practical urgency by the French Revolution, is considered in the context of the public and private reactions to Burke's political writings. It is based on Burke's Correspondence, his Writings and Speeches and microfilm copies of The Papers of Edmund Burke recently made available from the Wentworth Woodhouse Muniments. ;The dissertation argues that Burke's Essay Towards an Abridgement of the English History, an early, unfinished and largely ignored work, captures the quintessence of Burke's political beliefs: his respect for the accumulated experience and wisdom of the past, forged out of circumstance, structured around the Church and the aristocracy, whose power was based on property. Burke saw the French Revolution as an attack on this historical interpretation and these institutions; he also believed the iconoclastic nature of the Revolution was incompatible with civil society. The debate became focused on the means and management of political change. ;The dissertation is structured to provide an analysis of the arguments of Burke and his critics regarding the intrinsic value of History, Religion, Aristocracy, Property and Civil Society, and their ability to promote change. The dissertation suggests that Burke's Trinitarian Christian Faith, though broad, undogmatic and ecumenical, was the immutable element of his political beliefs and therefore provided an insuperable barrier to any sympathy, acceptance or compromise with the aims of the Revolution. ;Burke's attempts at political change within a Christian, Erastian state were constrained by the policies of his Monarch and the ineffective national leadership of the Whig aristocracy. Ireland presented a particular paradox: a country whose constitution was similar to the English constitution Burke so passionately defended, and yet was the negation of all his political, religious and social values. ;These considerations led Burke to conclude that constitutional theory is circumscribed by human nature and that the control of faction, as opposed to the pursuit of a unitary, universal Truth, is the essential element of any political system, which, though it must allow for change, must discourage radical restructuring