Liberty Fund Books

Description

Burke has endured as the permanent manual of political wisdom without which statesmen are as sailors on an uncharted sea.

— Harold Laski

Originally published by Oxford University Press in the 1890s, the famed Payne edition of Select Works of Burke is universally revered by students of English history and political thought. Volume 1 contains Burke's brilliant defense of the American colonists' complaints of British policy, including "Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents" (1770), "Speech on American Taxation" (1774), and "Speech on Conciliation" (1775). Volume 2 consists of Burke's renowned Reflections on the Revolution in France. Volume 3 presents Burke's Four Letters on the Proposals for Peace with the Regicide Directory of France--generally styled Letters on a Regicide Peace (1795–1796). The Letters, Payne believed, deserve to "rank even before [Burke's] Reflections, and to be called the writer's masterpiece." Faithfully reproduced in each volume are E. J. Payne's notes and introductory essays. Francis Canavan, one of the great Burke scholars of the twentieth century, has added forewords and a biographical note on Payne. In the companion volume, Miscellaneous Writings, Canavan has collected seven of Burke's major contributions to English political thinking on representation in Parliament, on economics, on the political oppression of the peoples of India and Ireland, and on the enslavement of African blacks. The volume concludes with a select bibliography on Edmund Burke. The volumes complement the Liberty Fund editions of Burke's A Vindication of Natural Society, edited by Frank N. Pagano, and Further Reflections on the Revolution in France, edited by Daniel E. Ritchie.

Francis Canavan, S.J., was for many years Professor of Government at Fordham University.

Select Works of Edmund Burke: Volume I
Select Works of Edmund Burke: Volume II
Select Works of Edmund Burke: Volume III

Table of Contents

VOLUME 1
EDITOR’S FOREWORD ix
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE xv
EDITOR’S NOTE xxi
INTRODUCTION BY E. J. PAYNE 3

THOUGHTS ON THE CAUSE OF THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS (1770) 69
SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION (1774) 157
SPEECH ON MOVING RESOLUTIONS FOR CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES (1775) 221

NOTES 291

VOLUME II
EDITOR’S FOREWORD ix
EDITOR’S NOTE xxx
CHRONOLOGY xxxi
INTRODUCTION BY E. J. PAYNE 3

REFLECTIONS ON THE REVOLUTION IN FRANCE (1790) 85

NOTES 367

VOLUME III
EDITOR’S FOREWORD Viii
EDITOR’S NOTE xi
INTRODUCTION BY E. J. PAYNE 3

LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE LETTER NO. 1. ON THE OVERTURES OF PEACE (1796) 59
LETTER NO. 2. GENIUS AND CHARACTER OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION (1796) 153
LETTER NO. 3. PROPOSALS FOR PEACE (1797) 191
LETTER NO. 4. TO THE EARL FITZWILLIAM (1795) 307

NOTES 395