In 1790, one year after revolution had broken out across the channel, the Anglo-Irish statesman Edmund Burke wrote his now classic Reflections on the Revolution in France. Many of Burke’s compatriots, especially his fellow Whigs, thought that the French were finally rid of their absolutist government and were embracing the constitutional institutions which they themselves had long enjoyed. They thus gave qualified support to the revolution.
Burke would have none of this, sensing that something more destructive was afoot in that country. The revolutionaries were going much further than to replace flawed rulers with better ones. In fact, their efforts would soon lead to a reign of terror, something that Burke foresaw in his Reflections.
Read the rest of the column here. I have now been writing for Christian Courier for 36 years. Next month's column will cover Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer, an intellectual and spiritual heir of Burke whose recent biography by Roel Kuiper I have reviewed here.
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