1729-1797. British Whig politician and
political theorist, born in Dublin, Ireland.
In Parliament from 1765, he opposed the
government's attempts to coerce the American
colonists, for example in Thoughts on the
Present Discontents 1770, and supported the
emancipation of Ireland, but denounced the
French Revolution, for example in Reflections
on the Revolution in France 1790. Burke wrote
A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of
our Ideas on the Sublime and Beautiful 1756,
on aesthetics. He was paymaster of the forces
in Rockingham's government 1782 and in the
Fox-North coalition 1783, and after the
collapse of the latter spent the rest of his
career in opposition. He attacked Warren
Hastings's misgovernment in India and
promoted his impeachment. Burke defended his
inconsistency in supporting the American but
not the French Revolution in his Appeal from
the New to the Old Whigs 1791 and Letter to a
Noble Lord 1796, and attacked the suggestion
of peace with France in Letters on a Regicide
Peace 1795-97. He retired 1794. He was a
skilled orator and is regarded by
Conservatives as the greatest of their
political theorists.