Tory language and Whigg measure : Edmund Burke on manners, history, and law

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the complex relationship between manners, history, and law in the writings of Edmund Burke. In sum, this relationship was rooted in a naturalism based, not in eternal verities, but in the dynamic empiricism of his age, the legacy of the 'culture of politeness', and religious latitudinarianism. The 'moral constitution of the heart', the formation of individual character, was a sublime amalgamation of native predispositions and cultural influence. It was on this 'constitution' that Burke saw the history of European manners and progress built. In articulating this sense of progress, he was working in parallel, if not actually in partnership, with many of the most sophisticated historians and jurists of the day, especially those of the Scottish enlightenment. A 'civil economy of glory' continued, he believed, to provide the social stability necessary for improvement and a link between private and public interest. On the other hand, a commercial humanism provided energy and ambition for social change and 'communication'. And, in Ireland, it promised to dismantle both the economic monopoly of other parts of Britain over Ireland and perhaps the wider monopoly of the Ascendancy within Ireland. Here as elsewhere, Burke’s use of the language of the 'civic' traditions, both ancient and modem, leavened his faith in commerce and indeed in law.