The Advent of Crisis

This chapter details Burke's political life from 1785 to 1790. Burke's support for a range of causes won an audience in the Commons from the middle of the decade: principally, opposition to the transportation of convicts in 1785 and moves to abolish the slave trade in 1789. Yet in the same period, Burke felt compelled to defend the authority of prescription. In opposing Pitt's Bill for parliamentary reform in 1785 and his attempt to impose restraints on the conduct of the regent in 1788–9, Burke supported existing arrangements in terms of established convention. Pragmatic conventions and original rights then collided with the French Revolution. By the early autumn of 1789, Burke was adamant that the rage in France against established usage would prove destructive of the principles of society and government.