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Thoughts On The Cause Of The Present Discontents
This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.
92 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1770
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About the author
Edmund Burke
2,101 books570 followersAfter
A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful
, aesthetic treatise of 1757, Edmund Burke, also noted Irish British politician and writer, supported the cause of the American colonists in Parliament but took a more conservative position in his
Reflections on the Revolution in France
in 1790.
Edmund Burke, an Anglo statesman, author, orator, and theorist, served for many years in the House of Commons as a member of the Whig party. People remember mainly the dispute with George III, great king, and his leadership and strength. The latter made Burke to lead figures, dubbed the "old" faction of the Whig against new Charles James Fox. Burke published a work and attempted to define triggering of emotions and passions in a person. Burke worked and founded the Annual Register, a review. People often regard him as the Anglo founder.
Edmund Burke, an Anglo statesman, author, orator, and theorist, served for many years in the House of Commons as a member of the Whig party. People remember mainly the dispute with George III, great king, and his leadership and strength. The latter made Burke to lead figures, dubbed the "old" faction of the Whig against new Charles James Fox. Burke published a work and attempted to define triggering of emotions and passions in a person. Burke worked and founded the Annual Register, a review. People often regard him as the Anglo founder.
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February 23, 2015
A collection of speeches and writings on a variety of political topics, starting with an alleged conspiracy among the ministers of the crown and proceeding to various issues with the Parliament. Burke displays, as usual, his mixture of keen insight into human hearts, minds, and affairs with his pragmatism and his Conservative-streaked Liberalism. For a variety of reasons, the reader will not be disappointed reading these works, even if, in a few places, they get wordy and focused on some details no longer relevant today. I actually read this as part of Collected Works of Edmund Burke, but since Goodreads limits my reviews to 20,000 characters or less, and I can't review an entire collection that briefly, I am reviewing them separately; the location references are to the work I read.
The first piece is in many ways a masterpiece. By blaming a cabal of ministers around the king for things going wrong under George III, Burke excuses himself from blaming the King himself. While a few of his assertions rest on weak evidence or even inference, he does cite enough solid bits of evidence for his theory to show that there was at least enough smoke to search for a fire.
He starts his investigation into the "present discontents" with a statement that might as well be spoken of things today as in the 1770s and 1780s:
It is an undertaking of some degree of delicacy to examine into the cause of public disorders. If a man happens not to succeed in such an inquiry, he will be thought weak and visionary; if he touches the true grievance, there is a danger that he may come near to persons of weight and consequence, who will rather be exasperated at the discovery of their errors than thankful for the occasion of correcting them. (Location 9435-9438)
In yet another proclamation of grievances that sounds like it came off of this morning's opinion pages:
That Government is at once dreaded and contemned; that the laws are despoiled of all their respected and salutary terrors; that their inaction is a subject of ridicule, and their exertion of abhorrence; that rank, and office, and title, and all the solemn plausibilities of the world, have lost their reverence and effect; that our foreign politics are as much deranged as our domestic economy; that our dependencies are slackened in their affection, and loosened from their obedience; that we know neither how to yield nor how to enforce; that hardly anything above or below, abroad or at home, is sound and entire; but that disconnection and confusion, in offices, in parties, in families, in Parliament, in the nation, prevail beyond the disorders of any former time: these are facts universally admitted and lamented. (Location 9465-9471)
Walter Williams would be proud of Burke's arguments in favor of culture and custom ruling the day for most people in most circumstances, "Nations are not primarily ruled by laws; less by violence." (Location 9448) However, once it comes down to a matter of law and government, Burke held no illusions, but rather agreed with Chairman Mao's famous dictum but in his own Burkian style, "call your constitution what you please, it is the sword that governs." (location 10135-10136)
In making his argument against the crown ministry's conspiracy against the Parliament and against the people, Burke can be heard to foresee the East German joke about dissolving the people and forming a new one: "That we have a very good Ministry, but that we are a very bad people." (location 9491) Showing the sophistry of arguments against the rich, also a very relevant point in political discourse today, "If the wealth of the nation be the cause of its turbulence, I imagine it is not proposed to introduce poverty as a constable to keep the peace." (location 9496-9497) In keeping with his lifetime devotion to the Whig party, Burke favors liberty in general, "If our liberty has enfeebled the executive power, there is no design, I hope, to call in the aid of despotism to fill up the deficiencies of law." (location 9498-9499) He carries the argument further, showing the dangers of state power as against even the errors of the people, "The people have no interest in disorder. When they do wrong, it is their error, and not their crime. But with the governing part of the State it is far otherwise. They certainly may act ill by design, as well as by mistake." (location 9514-9516) A cautionary tale indeed for the Statists of today who seek to protect people from themselves! And again, "If this presumption in favour of the subjects against the trustees of power be not the more probable, I am sure it is the more comfortable speculation, because it is more easy to change an Administration than to reform a people." (location 9520-9522)
Burke goes on to analyze what makes for good government, and what undermines it. Speaking from experience, he notes, "Undoubtedly the very best Administration must encounter a great deal of opposition, and the very worst will find more support than it deserves." (location 10027-10028) A good reminder in favor of integrity to the poll-chasing "leaders" of today! Burke precedes Alexis de Tocqueville's observation about the sort of incompetent people drawn toward government, "None are supposed to be fit priests in the temple of Government, but the persons who are compelled to fly into it for sanctuary." (location 10209-10210) He rightly notes the damage done by yes-men in power or the apathetic who can empower, "He that supports every Administration, subverts all government." (location 10708-10709)
Burke warns of ways in which people trade their freedom away, "a system unfavorable to freedom may be so formed as considerably to exalt the grandeur of the State, and men may find in the pride and splendour of that prosperity some sort of consolation for the loss of their solid privileges. Indeed, the increase of the power of the State has often been urged by artful men, as a pretext for some abridgment of the public liberty." (location 10057-10060) How he foresaw not only the Jacobins, but Hitler and Mussolini as well. More insidiously, liberty is stolen away through dependency, "whoever is necessary to what we have made our object, is sure, in some way, or in some time or other, to become our master." (location 10203-10204) Yet another argument against adopting too many coerced "collective" objectives enforced by a government on its people, though Burke does not take his argument to this next step in favor of limited government; his conservatism keeps him from wanting to alter the glorious British Constitution very much at any one step (he later went much further than this in the defense of the state of nature).
Despite Burke's membership in Parliament and Whig affiliation, he had reservations about the efficacy of Parliamentary power; he did not share the American founders' optimism on the subject: "Whenever Parliament is persuaded to assume the offices of executive Government, it will lose all the confidence, love, and veneration which it has ever enjoyed, whilst it was supposed the corrective and control of the acting powers of the State." (location 10308-10311) He goes on to note, "because the House of Commons, as it is the most powerful, is the most corruptible part of the whole Constitution." (location 10933-10934) Interesting that despite coming up to this same point again and again in different ways, Burke does not press the argument to the next logical step, namely, reduce the power, scope, span, and wealth of the government to reduce problems such as corruption. He saw the actual act of elections as detracting from the common good, despite their necessity for government to be accountable: "They are the distempers of elections, that have destroyed all free states." (location 11237-11238) Yet again, it is only the power gained by government that draws such money and effort toward dominating, even subverting, elections, but this is not a leap made by Burke.
In the later pieces of this collection, Burke takes on Parliament not only disqualifying one of its members, but then replaced at the choice of the majority, regardless of the district's election to the contrary, as well as proposed reforms to Parliament itself. He attacks every form of despotism that begins with the 'trust us, we're experts' fallacy: "The people indeed have been told, that this power of discretionary disqualification is vested in hands that they may trust, and who will be sure not to abuse it to their prejudice. Until I find something in this argument differing from that on which every mode of despotism has been defended, I shall not be inclined to pay it any great compliment." (location 10468-10470)
In an especially valuable warning to would-be reformers, Burke introduces some refreshing realism: "I cannot be equally confident in any plan for the absolute cures of those disorders, or for their certain future prevention." (location 10618-10619) In short, no system or procedure is going to be fool-proof, there are no institutional silver bullets. And again, "That man thinks much too highly, and therefore he thinks weakly and delusively, of any contrivance of human wisdom, who believes that it can make any sort of approach to perfection." (location 11229-11230) However, he does fall back on certain Liberal instincts, "A restoration of the right of free election is a preliminary indispensable to every other reformation." (location 10624-10625) Of course, when considering reform, there are differences of opinion as to the desired outcome, as also outlined magnificently by G.K.Chesterton. Or as Burke said, "Whether a measure of Government be right or wrong is no matter of fact, but a mere affair of opinion, on which men may, as they do, dispute and wrangle without end." (location 10839-10841) Despite Burke's other famous quote about opposing evil, he in fact brings a similar realism to this topic, "It is no inconsiderable part of wisdom, to know how much of an evil ought to be tolerated; lest, by attempting a degree of purity impracticable in degenerate times and manners, instead of cutting off the subsisting ill practices, new corruptions might be produced for the concealment and security of the old." (location 10665-10667) In other words, the human condition prevents perfection, and the relentless quest for it may do more harm than good.
Burke is against the would-be "reformer" who agitates more than improves, showing his pragmatism as always, "Blessed be not the complaining tongue, but blessed be the amending hand." (location 11218-11219) Burke's conservatism also restrains his own reforming intentions, "It is a presumption in favour of any settled scheme of government against any untried project, that a nation has long existed and flourished under it." (location 11488-11489) And also, "Expedience is that which is good for the community, and good for every individual in it." (location 11532-11533) Good luck finding any one policy that is good for every individual! Yet, Burke also disdains that which would truly be good but applied incrementally or moderately, "'I mean,' says he, 'a moderate and temperate reform;' that is, 'I mean to do as little good as possible.'" (location 11559-11560)
Let no one think this means Burke calmly accepts evil where it manifests, "When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle." (location 10753-10754)
Burke does not shy away from partisanship and party politics, accepting it as part of the human condition and even intended for the greater good, "Party is a body of men united for promoting by their joint endeavours the national interest, upon some particular principle in which they are all agreed." (location 10810-10811)
As our contemporary society continues to debate freedom of speech, and as libertarians wrangle with damages from libel and slander versus liberty, Burke weighs in with his own ideas: "Undoubtedly the good fame of every man ought to be under the protection of the laws as well as his life, and liberty, and property. The law forbids you to revenge; when it ties up the hands of some, it ought to restrain the tongues of others." (location 11079-11081) Of course, that last point can be seen to cut both ways; untying the hand would permit the State to unbind the tongue.
Anyone interested in politics, policy, or political conspiracy and machination would do well to read Burke. If you're expecting a clear statement of abstract principles and morals, you will rather find a mass of contradictions. But if you're looking for pragmatic advice or ways of evaluating and perhaps even implementing practical steps, Burke's insight, experience, and ideas are worth considering.
The first piece is in many ways a masterpiece. By blaming a cabal of ministers around the king for things going wrong under George III, Burke excuses himself from blaming the King himself. While a few of his assertions rest on weak evidence or even inference, he does cite enough solid bits of evidence for his theory to show that there was at least enough smoke to search for a fire.
He starts his investigation into the "present discontents" with a statement that might as well be spoken of things today as in the 1770s and 1780s:
It is an undertaking of some degree of delicacy to examine into the cause of public disorders. If a man happens not to succeed in such an inquiry, he will be thought weak and visionary; if he touches the true grievance, there is a danger that he may come near to persons of weight and consequence, who will rather be exasperated at the discovery of their errors than thankful for the occasion of correcting them. (Location 9435-9438)
In yet another proclamation of grievances that sounds like it came off of this morning's opinion pages:
That Government is at once dreaded and contemned; that the laws are despoiled of all their respected and salutary terrors; that their inaction is a subject of ridicule, and their exertion of abhorrence; that rank, and office, and title, and all the solemn plausibilities of the world, have lost their reverence and effect; that our foreign politics are as much deranged as our domestic economy; that our dependencies are slackened in their affection, and loosened from their obedience; that we know neither how to yield nor how to enforce; that hardly anything above or below, abroad or at home, is sound and entire; but that disconnection and confusion, in offices, in parties, in families, in Parliament, in the nation, prevail beyond the disorders of any former time: these are facts universally admitted and lamented. (Location 9465-9471)
Walter Williams would be proud of Burke's arguments in favor of culture and custom ruling the day for most people in most circumstances, "Nations are not primarily ruled by laws; less by violence." (Location 9448) However, once it comes down to a matter of law and government, Burke held no illusions, but rather agreed with Chairman Mao's famous dictum but in his own Burkian style, "call your constitution what you please, it is the sword that governs." (location 10135-10136)
In making his argument against the crown ministry's conspiracy against the Parliament and against the people, Burke can be heard to foresee the East German joke about dissolving the people and forming a new one: "That we have a very good Ministry, but that we are a very bad people." (location 9491) Showing the sophistry of arguments against the rich, also a very relevant point in political discourse today, "If the wealth of the nation be the cause of its turbulence, I imagine it is not proposed to introduce poverty as a constable to keep the peace." (location 9496-9497) In keeping with his lifetime devotion to the Whig party, Burke favors liberty in general, "If our liberty has enfeebled the executive power, there is no design, I hope, to call in the aid of despotism to fill up the deficiencies of law." (location 9498-9499) He carries the argument further, showing the dangers of state power as against even the errors of the people, "The people have no interest in disorder. When they do wrong, it is their error, and not their crime. But with the governing part of the State it is far otherwise. They certainly may act ill by design, as well as by mistake." (location 9514-9516) A cautionary tale indeed for the Statists of today who seek to protect people from themselves! And again, "If this presumption in favour of the subjects against the trustees of power be not the more probable, I am sure it is the more comfortable speculation, because it is more easy to change an Administration than to reform a people." (location 9520-9522)
Burke goes on to analyze what makes for good government, and what undermines it. Speaking from experience, he notes, "Undoubtedly the very best Administration must encounter a great deal of opposition, and the very worst will find more support than it deserves." (location 10027-10028) A good reminder in favor of integrity to the poll-chasing "leaders" of today! Burke precedes Alexis de Tocqueville's observation about the sort of incompetent people drawn toward government, "None are supposed to be fit priests in the temple of Government, but the persons who are compelled to fly into it for sanctuary." (location 10209-10210) He rightly notes the damage done by yes-men in power or the apathetic who can empower, "He that supports every Administration, subverts all government." (location 10708-10709)
Burke warns of ways in which people trade their freedom away, "a system unfavorable to freedom may be so formed as considerably to exalt the grandeur of the State, and men may find in the pride and splendour of that prosperity some sort of consolation for the loss of their solid privileges. Indeed, the increase of the power of the State has often been urged by artful men, as a pretext for some abridgment of the public liberty." (location 10057-10060) How he foresaw not only the Jacobins, but Hitler and Mussolini as well. More insidiously, liberty is stolen away through dependency, "whoever is necessary to what we have made our object, is sure, in some way, or in some time or other, to become our master." (location 10203-10204) Yet another argument against adopting too many coerced "collective" objectives enforced by a government on its people, though Burke does not take his argument to this next step in favor of limited government; his conservatism keeps him from wanting to alter the glorious British Constitution very much at any one step (he later went much further than this in the defense of the state of nature).
Despite Burke's membership in Parliament and Whig affiliation, he had reservations about the efficacy of Parliamentary power; he did not share the American founders' optimism on the subject: "Whenever Parliament is persuaded to assume the offices of executive Government, it will lose all the confidence, love, and veneration which it has ever enjoyed, whilst it was supposed the corrective and control of the acting powers of the State." (location 10308-10311) He goes on to note, "because the House of Commons, as it is the most powerful, is the most corruptible part of the whole Constitution." (location 10933-10934) Interesting that despite coming up to this same point again and again in different ways, Burke does not press the argument to the next logical step, namely, reduce the power, scope, span, and wealth of the government to reduce problems such as corruption. He saw the actual act of elections as detracting from the common good, despite their necessity for government to be accountable: "They are the distempers of elections, that have destroyed all free states." (location 11237-11238) Yet again, it is only the power gained by government that draws such money and effort toward dominating, even subverting, elections, but this is not a leap made by Burke.
In the later pieces of this collection, Burke takes on Parliament not only disqualifying one of its members, but then replaced at the choice of the majority, regardless of the district's election to the contrary, as well as proposed reforms to Parliament itself. He attacks every form of despotism that begins with the 'trust us, we're experts' fallacy: "The people indeed have been told, that this power of discretionary disqualification is vested in hands that they may trust, and who will be sure not to abuse it to their prejudice. Until I find something in this argument differing from that on which every mode of despotism has been defended, I shall not be inclined to pay it any great compliment." (location 10468-10470)
In an especially valuable warning to would-be reformers, Burke introduces some refreshing realism: "I cannot be equally confident in any plan for the absolute cures of those disorders, or for their certain future prevention." (location 10618-10619) In short, no system or procedure is going to be fool-proof, there are no institutional silver bullets. And again, "That man thinks much too highly, and therefore he thinks weakly and delusively, of any contrivance of human wisdom, who believes that it can make any sort of approach to perfection." (location 11229-11230) However, he does fall back on certain Liberal instincts, "A restoration of the right of free election is a preliminary indispensable to every other reformation." (location 10624-10625) Of course, when considering reform, there are differences of opinion as to the desired outcome, as also outlined magnificently by G.K.Chesterton. Or as Burke said, "Whether a measure of Government be right or wrong is no matter of fact, but a mere affair of opinion, on which men may, as they do, dispute and wrangle without end." (location 10839-10841) Despite Burke's other famous quote about opposing evil, he in fact brings a similar realism to this topic, "It is no inconsiderable part of wisdom, to know how much of an evil ought to be tolerated; lest, by attempting a degree of purity impracticable in degenerate times and manners, instead of cutting off the subsisting ill practices, new corruptions might be produced for the concealment and security of the old." (location 10665-10667) In other words, the human condition prevents perfection, and the relentless quest for it may do more harm than good.
Burke is against the would-be "reformer" who agitates more than improves, showing his pragmatism as always, "Blessed be not the complaining tongue, but blessed be the amending hand." (location 11218-11219) Burke's conservatism also restrains his own reforming intentions, "It is a presumption in favour of any settled scheme of government against any untried project, that a nation has long existed and flourished under it." (location 11488-11489) And also, "Expedience is that which is good for the community, and good for every individual in it." (location 11532-11533) Good luck finding any one policy that is good for every individual! Yet, Burke also disdains that which would truly be good but applied incrementally or moderately, "'I mean,' says he, 'a moderate and temperate reform;' that is, 'I mean to do as little good as possible.'" (location 11559-11560)
Let no one think this means Burke calmly accepts evil where it manifests, "When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle." (location 10753-10754)
Burke does not shy away from partisanship and party politics, accepting it as part of the human condition and even intended for the greater good, "Party is a body of men united for promoting by their joint endeavours the national interest, upon some particular principle in which they are all agreed." (location 10810-10811)
As our contemporary society continues to debate freedom of speech, and as libertarians wrangle with damages from libel and slander versus liberty, Burke weighs in with his own ideas: "Undoubtedly the good fame of every man ought to be under the protection of the laws as well as his life, and liberty, and property. The law forbids you to revenge; when it ties up the hands of some, it ought to restrain the tongues of others." (location 11079-11081) Of course, that last point can be seen to cut both ways; untying the hand would permit the State to unbind the tongue.
Anyone interested in politics, policy, or political conspiracy and machination would do well to read Burke. If you're expecting a clear statement of abstract principles and morals, you will rather find a mass of contradictions. But if you're looking for pragmatic advice or ways of evaluating and perhaps even implementing practical steps, Burke's insight, experience, and ideas are worth considering.
July 8, 2017
Difficult to read - due to both style and content. Some great, pithy statements
1. "Whether all this be a vision of a distracted brain, or the invention of a malicious heart, or a real faction in the country …" The balance of the phrases yet the separation of their meanings is pleasing to read, no matter agreement or disagreement with the follow on discussion.
2. Another wonderful metaphorical balance, arguing against black-or-white thinking. "We must soften into a credulity below the milkiness of infancy, to think all men virtuous. We must be tainted with a malignity truly diabolical, to believe all the world to be equally wicked and corrupt."
3. Here's some good sense on the problem when the King has the power of favoritism in appointing ministers, it tends to "turn the views of active men from country to the Court."
4. Here's a nice subjective consideration that both sides of the political spectrum can hold dear. "Undoubtedly the very best Administration must encounter a great deal of opposition, and the very worst will find more support than it deserves."
Background of British government is not my strong point, making his connotations difficult.
Damn – his entire essay is one long stream with no headings, no subheadings, no graphics showing relationships of parts
Purpose of admin is to accomplish nothing, but to give the appearance of great discord
Things that I've divined from reading "Thoughts on the Present Discontents"
1. Crown. Discretionary powers and executive powers to enforce (or dare I say it, ignore) the law
Ministers (Ministers of the Crown later stated), discretionary power of Crown to form
2.Legislature – a distinct body (parliament, I presume)
3. Civil list – money for the royal family and its designates. Extraordinary charges – beyond this?
4. Court faction, CABAL (later Court Cabal). The King's Men with comments on the framing power of that self-definition. Do law courts, judges, and magistrates fall under here?
5. Peers
6. Democracy vs. power of favoritism
7. Popular election of magistrates
8. Separation of concepts: Parliament and Government (? Incl. ministers – they appear to be Administration, like our Executive branch)
1. "Whether all this be a vision of a distracted brain, or the invention of a malicious heart, or a real faction in the country …" The balance of the phrases yet the separation of their meanings is pleasing to read, no matter agreement or disagreement with the follow on discussion.
2. Another wonderful metaphorical balance, arguing against black-or-white thinking. "We must soften into a credulity below the milkiness of infancy, to think all men virtuous. We must be tainted with a malignity truly diabolical, to believe all the world to be equally wicked and corrupt."
3. Here's some good sense on the problem when the King has the power of favoritism in appointing ministers, it tends to "turn the views of active men from country to the Court."
4. Here's a nice subjective consideration that both sides of the political spectrum can hold dear. "Undoubtedly the very best Administration must encounter a great deal of opposition, and the very worst will find more support than it deserves."
Background of British government is not my strong point, making his connotations difficult.
Damn – his entire essay is one long stream with no headings, no subheadings, no graphics showing relationships of parts
Purpose of admin is to accomplish nothing, but to give the appearance of great discord
Things that I've divined from reading "Thoughts on the Present Discontents"
1. Crown. Discretionary powers and executive powers to enforce (or dare I say it, ignore) the law
Ministers (Ministers of the Crown later stated), discretionary power of Crown to form
2.Legislature – a distinct body (parliament, I presume)
3. Civil list – money for the royal family and its designates. Extraordinary charges – beyond this?
4. Court faction, CABAL (later Court Cabal). The King's Men with comments on the framing power of that self-definition. Do law courts, judges, and magistrates fall under here?
5. Peers
6. Democracy vs. power of favoritism
7. Popular election of magistrates
8. Separation of concepts: Parliament and Government (? Incl. ministers – they appear to be Administration, like our Executive branch)
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