The Great Melody (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Conor Cruise O’Brien
- First Published: 1992
- Type of Work: Biography
- Time of Work: 1729-1797
- Setting: England and Ireland
- Principal Characters: Edmund Burke, Charles Watson-Wentworth, George III, Frederick, William Petty, William Pitt, Charles James Fox
- Genres: Nonfiction, History, Biography
- Subjects: Politics, England or English people, Eighteenth century, Catholics or Catholic Church, Ireland or Irish people, Orators or orations
- Locales: England, Ireland
Edmund Burke has suffered from having said too many wise things. In ardent support of the American colonists in 1774, he argued that “general rebellions and revolts of a whole people were never encouraged, now or at any time. They are always provoked.” Sixteen years later, he was giving notice to the French that they could hardly be congratulated for letting loose the madman of revolution when they knew so little of the “new power in new persons, of whose principles, tempers, and dispositions, they have little or no experience.” Understandably, Burke has been...
[The entire page is 2090 words long]
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