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A Public Controversy 1790–1792

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Burke, Paine, and the Rights of Man

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Abstract

It was Edmund Burke who started the controversy. His Reflections on the Revolution in France was published in London on 1 November 1790,1 and created something of a sensation in the literary and political world. Newspapers such as The Times and The St. James Chronicle published extracts from it. “Within our remembrance” wrote The London Chronicle on 2 November, “no publication has excited more anxious curiosity.” King George III was reported to have said that every gentleman should read it, and as gentlemen hastened to comply, the booksellers did an unprecedented trade. Seven thousand copies of the book, at five shillings each, were sold in the first week,2 and it was reprinted several times before the end of the year.3

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References

  1. The Times, The Diary, The World, The Oracle, The St James Chronicle, and other newspapers were receiving government subsidies in 1790. See The History of The Times, I, 61.

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  2. The Public Advertiser 16 March 1791, “This day is published, Price 3s The Rights of Man…

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  3. In a letter written on 25 November 1791, Paine said that 16.000 copies had been sold in England, over 40.000 in Ireland. CONWAY, Life, 343.

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  4. In Dublin, one edition was printed by “The Whigs of the Capital” (1791); in Londonderry, “at the desire of a society of gentlemen” (1791). P. Byrne of Dublin was selling his 13th edition in 1792.

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  5. Founded to commemorate the English Revolution of 1688.

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  6. The Morning Post, 21 July; The Oracle, 7 July 1789.

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  7. See The Gentleman’s Magazine, 1789, 656; The Diary z6 May; The World zo July 1789.

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  8. The Oracle, 4 July 1789.

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  9. The Bristol Journal, i August 2789.

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  10. The Public Advertiser, zo July 1789.

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  11. The Oracle, 21 July 2789. See also The Bath Chronicle, 23 July 2789.

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  12. The Times, 12 October 1789; The Bath Chronicle, 15 October 1789.

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  13. The Times, 13 October 1789.

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  14. See, for example, ROMILLY, Thoughts on the Probable Influence of the French Revolution on Great Britain (1790).

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  15. I Quoted in STANHOPE, Life of the Rt. Hon. William Pitt, II, 48-49.

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  16. See CURRIE, Memoir of the Life... of James Currie, I, 168. The case of the dissenters for disestablishment was explained and defended by Priestley in his Letters to the Right Honourable Edmund Burke Occasioned by his Reflections on the Revolution in France, (1792), 41–85. See below, p. 206.

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  17. For the history of the reform movement in England see VEITCH, The Genesis of Parliamentary Reform, and WYVILL, Political Papers. The best account of the system of representation prior to 1832 is in PORRITT and PORRITT, The Unreformed House of Commons.

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  18. CARTWRIGHT, The Life and Correspondence of Major Cartwright, I, 182.

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  19. “>Works, VI, 1o2 seq.

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  20. See VEITCH, The Genesis of Parliamentary Reform, 52–78.

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  21. See Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents (1770), Works, I,310.

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  22. Speech on Conciliation with America (1775), Works, I,476.

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  23. Parl. Hist.,XXIX, 379, (1791).

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  24. Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents (1770), Works, I, 306 seq..

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  25. See, for example, STANHOPE, A Letter… to the Rt. Hon. Edmund Burke,27; MACKINTOSH, Vindiciae Gallicae 293 seq.; PRIESTLEY, Letters to the Rt. Hon. Edmund Burke…,19 seq..

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  26. The Public Advertiser,10 November 1790.

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  27. See RUSSELL, Memorials and Correspondence of C. J. Fox,II, 363.

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  28. WOLLSTONECRAFT, A Vindication of the Rights of Men,19.

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  29. Letter in The Public Advertiser,15 November 179o. The accusation was an old one: see Parl. Hist., XVI,924 (1770).

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  30. The honour is usually accorded to Sir James Mackintosh’s Vindiciae Gallicae,which appeared in April 1791.

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  31. See, for example, BOOTHBY, Observations on the Appeal...; Constitutional Letters in Answer to Mr Paine’s Right of Man; ROMILLY, Memoirs of the Life of Sir S. Romilly, I,426. WYVILL, Political Papers,V, 18.

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  32. Rights of Man (Ev.), 5–6; 9; 26; 55; 87 note; The Writings,II, 271; 275; 290; 316; 344 note.

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  1. Collège St Antoine, Louvain, Belgium

    R. R. Fennessy o.f.m.

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  1. R. R. Fennessy o.f.m.
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© 1963 Springer Science + Business Media B.V.

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Fennessy, R.R. (1963). A Public Controversy 1790–1792. In: Burke, Paine, and the Rights of Man. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-3637-0_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-3637-0_1

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-015-2387-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-015-3637-0

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