The Writings and Speeches of Edmund Burke

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Cosimo, Inc., Jan 1, 2008 - History - 588 pages
This 12-volume set contains the complete life works of EDMUND BURKE (1729-1797), Irish political writer and statesman. Educated at a Quaker boarding school and at Trinity College in Dublin, Burke's eloquence gained him a high position in Britain's Whig party, and he was active in public life. He supported limitations on the power of the monarch and believed that the British people should have a greater say in their government. In general, Burke spoke out against the persecutions perpetuated by the British Empire on its colonies, including America, Ireland, and India. Burke's speeches and writings influenced the great thinkers of his day, including America's Founding Fathers. In Volume III, readers will find: . "Speech on the Nabob of Arcot's Debts" . "Speech on the Debate of the Army Estimates in the House of Commons" . "Reflections on the Revolution in France"

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Page 274 - You will observe, that from Magna Charta to the Declaration of Right, it has been the uniform policy of our constitution to claim and assert our liberties, as an entailed inheritance derived to us from our forefathers, and to be transmitted to our posterity; as an estate specially belonging to the people of this kingdom, without any reference whatever to any other more general or prior right.
Page 62 - ... criminals a memorable example to mankind. He resolved, in the gloomy recesses of a mind capacious of such things, to leave the whole Carnatic an everlasting monument of vengeance ; and to put perpetual desolation as a barrier between him and those against whom the faith which holds the moral elements of the world together, was no protection.
Page 63 - Arcot, he drew from every quarter whatever a savage ferocity could add to his new rudiments in the arts of destruction ; and compounding all the materials of fury, havoc, and desolation, into one black cloud, he hung for a while on the declivities of the mountains.
Page 245 - Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a twoedged sword in their hand; 7 to execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people; ' to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; 'to execute upon them the judgment written: this honour have all his saints.
Page 347 - Prejudice is of ready application in the emergency; it previously engages the mind in a steady course of wisdom and virtue, and does not leave the man hesitating in the moment of decision, sceptical, puzzled, and unresolved. Prejudice renders a man's virtue his habit; and not a series of unconnected acts. Through just prejudice, his duty becomes a part of his nature.
Page 275 - In this choice of inheritance we have given to our frame of polity the image of a relation in blood; binding up the constitution of our country with our dearest domestic ties; adopting our fundamental laws into the bosom of our family affections; keeping inseparable, and cherishing with the warmth of all their combined and mutually reflected charities, our state, our hearths, our sepulchres, and our altars.
Page 246 - ... them, are, for the greater part, ignorant both of the character they leave, and of the character they assume. Wholly unacquainted with the world in which they are so fond of meddling, and inexperienced in all its affairs, on which they pronounce with so much confidence, they have nothing of politics but the passions they excite. Surely the church is a place where one day's truce ought to be allowed to the dissensions and animosities of mankind.
Page 358 - By this wise prejudice we are taught to look with horror on those children of their country who are prompt rashly to hack that aged parent in pieces, and put him into the kettle of magicians, in hopes that by their poisonous weeds, and wild incantations, they may regenerate the paternal constitution, and renovate their father's life.
Page 345 - We know that we have made no discoveries, and we think that no dis"coveries are to be made, in morality ; nor many in the great principles of government, nor in the ideas of liberty, which were understood long before we were born, altogether as well as they will be after the grave has heaped its mould . upon our presumption, and the silent tomb shall have imposed its law on our pert loquacity.

About the author (2008)

Born in Ireland in 1729, Edmund Burke was an English statesman, author, and orator who is best remembered as a formidable advocate for those who were victims of injustice. He was the son of a Dublin lawyer and had also trained to practice law. In the 1760s, Burke was elected to the House of Commons from the Whig party. Burke spent most of his career in Parliament as a member of the Royal Opposition, who was not afraid of controversy, as shown by his support for the American Revolution and for Irish/Catholic rights. His best-known work is Reflections on the French Revolution (1790). Some other notable works are On Conciliation with the American Colonies (1775) and Impeachment of Warren Hastings (1788). Edmund Burke died in 1797.

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