Conclusion

Abstract

The year 1792, which brought prosecution and exile for Thomas Paine, brought on the contrary a certain political rehabilitation for Edmund Burke. He did not, indeed, regain his position in the Portland Whigs, for Portland remained unwilling to break with Fox, and so Burke did not succeed in doing that “service to the party” which had been one of his main objects in writing Reflections.¹ Nevertheless he began once more to exercise a considerable influence over certain members of the party, and to be consulted by them on matters of policy.² Soon the progress of the French revolution in the direction Burke had foretold greatly increased his reputation and prestige; and after the beheading of the French king and the declaration of war between France and England he came to enjoy a unique personal status as an unofficial leader and inspirer of the anti-revolutionary movement in England. As Gilbert Elliot remarked in 1793, “Burke is in himself a sort of power in the state.” ³