The Authentication of Burke’s Reflections: Church, Monarchy and Universities, 1790-91

This article alters the terms in which the early response to Reflections on the Revolution in France, the most important criticism of the revolution of 1789, can be understood. For over a century, commentators have thought in terms of pamphlets, and Burke has seemed isolated or eccentric. But Burke considered that his account of the English nation, a vital feature of his argument, had been 'authenticated by the verdict of his country' and 'recognized by the body of the people'. The grounds for this unexpected view are identified here by turning from literary to institutional ways of responding, and by connecting institutions with a doctrine of representation, one which was basic to the Glorious Revolution and to the post-1688 constitution but which has not been treated in relation to them. Representation did not always entail election, and representatives included the monarch and the peers. England itself was understood in terms of corporate bodies and their relations. These bodies included nation, state and universities. A highly favourable verdict on Reflections was returned by leading representatives of the people, and by the incorporated 'people' itself. The responses from the King and the Archbishop of Canterbury and from certain universities 'authenticated' Burke's account. Burke, with such validation, could manifest indifference to The Rights of Man and the rest. But his opponents, who thought differently about representation, could not register what had happened. In the terms that Burke amongst others understood the matter, Reflections was 'authenticated', and its author, far from being isolated, was central. A new understanding of the response to Reflections thus emerges from combining history of political thought and political history in the way developed here, one which draws upon uncatalogued manuscripts. With that understanding an extensive agenda emerges for further work in these histories and in political theory.