As much a political philosopher as a politician, Edmund
Burke is today widely regarded as the foremost
Conservative philosopher - though he sided with the
Whigs in Parliament. A brilliant writer and orator, he
attacked George III's exalted view of the monarch's
political role, and made a series of famous speeches
blaming the unrest in the American colonies on British
misgovernment. He was paymaster of the forces in
Rockingham's government 1782 and in the Fox-North coalition
1783, and after the collapse of the latter spent the rest of his career
in opposition.
An opponent of democracy on the grounds that it put demagogues in power, he believed that the common good was best secured by responsible aristocratic government. This led him to condemn the
