Reflections on the Revolution in France
by Edmund Burke (1790) | Etext

Reading Notes--Adam Kissel

Page numbers refer to Reflections on the Revolution in France and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to That Event. Ed. Conor Cruise O'Brien. Penguin (Penguin Classics edn.), [1790] 1986.

Terms necessary to know (in addition to the incomplete references provided by O'Brien)
          (on several points thanks to <http://www.saburchill.com/history/chapters/chap4013f.html>)
          (Also see chronology of the French Revolution at <http://www.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/History/teaching/french-rev/chron.html>

Dissenters (Rational Dissenters) - party of Price, Priestley, and Mary Wollstonecraft; rejected some basic Christian principles and were accused of atheism; formed into the Unitarian Society; continued locus of attacks by Burke.

Jacobins - Burke was strongly against them on several counts (1795 letter, in O'Brien, 39: "the first, last and middle object of Jacobin hostility is religion").
          Great summary of J. at <http://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/rschwart/hist255/kat_anna/jacobins.html>: "The most prominent political clubs of the French Revolution were the Jacobin Clubs that sprung up throughout Paris and the provinces in August of 1789. By 1791, there were 900 Jacobin clubs in France associated with the main club in Paris. According to Spielvogel, 'Members were usually the elite of their local societies, but they also included artisans and tradesmen' (688). Jacobin clubs served as debating societies where politically minded Frenchmen aired their views and discussed current political issues. Many members of Jacobin clubs were also deputies and used the meetings to organize forces and plan tactics."
          "Formed in 1789 by the Breton deputies to the States-General, it was reconstituted as the Society of Friends of the Constitution after the revolutionary National Assembly moved (Oct., 1789) to Paris. ... Their chief purpose was to concert their activity and to secure support for the group from elements outside the Assembly. ... In the National Convention, which proclaimed the French republic, the Jacobins and other opponents of the Girondists sat in the raised seats and were called the Mountain. Their leaders--Maximilien Robespierre and Louis de Saint-Just, among others--relied mainly on the strength of the Paris commune and the Parisian sans-culottes. After the fall of the Girondists (June, 1793), for which the Jacobins were largely responsible, the Jacobin leaders instituted the Reign of Terror." <http://www.encyclopedia.com/articlesnew/06549.html> apparently copying from <http://www.bartleby.com/65/ja/Jacobins.html> (The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2001).
          "The Girondin Advocates for war increasingly put pressure on the Legislative Assembly to declare war on Austria and Prussia. ... This led to the Legislative Assembly presenting Austria and Prussia with a set of demands. When these were refused the Girondins gained even more support in their calls for war. The war was seen as a way to spread the revolutionary cause to all parts of Europe. ... It was also seen as a chance to untie all of the French people under one banner." <http://members.aol.com/agentmess/frenchrev/summary.html>

Petition of Right - 1628 England, Charles I agrees to get Parliament's consent for raising money and not to imprison without due process.

Church reform, 1630s-40s - [thanks to Broadbent via Norton edn. of Milton, pp. 307 ff.] Archbishop Laud (high Anglican) represses Puritans, who oppose bishops and free will; then the Puritans win and establish presbyters. When Independents under Cromwell execute king after second civil war in 1648 (q.v.), even more toleration holds. [Milton a Presbyterian; he broke with them over free press and religious liberty in about 1644, wanting national disestablishment of the church altogether]

Short Parliament and Long Parliament, 1640.

English Civil Wars, 1640s - [thanks to Broadbent via Norton edn. of Milton, pp. 307 ff.] between king and parliament, 1642-46, over sovereignty of each; Presbyterians/Puritans in parliament want to reconcile with king; then army gets in as a third party: the Independents, under Cromwell, who want "religious toleration and more extreme constitutional changes. Second civil war, 1648, defeats royalists and the king and puts Cromwell and Rump in control till he dissolves Rump in 1653.

Restoration, 1660 - Cromwell dies 1658; turmoil gives restored Rump fragile power in 1659/60. Charles II takes power; parliament represses nonconformists (incl. many Presbyterians).

Habeus corpus - right to a court trial (Habeus Corpus Act, England 1679; see also Magna Carta)

Glorious Revolution - England 1688. Catholic king, James II, tries to rule without Parliament; his country abandons him and calls on William of Orange (Dutch) and wife Mary (Protestant, daughter of James) to take the throne, so they do.

Whigs - vs. the Tories in England, generally wanted a weaker king and stronger emphasis on parliamentary rule; generally led by aristocratic class, emphasizing merit rule; trace back to 1688 Roundheads (and earlier groups); established by the Earl of Shaftesbury in 1681. O'Brien says that Burke served the Whig oligarchy.

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