Reflections on the Revolution in France

by

Edmund Burke

The Glorious Revolution, or Revolution of 1688, took place in November, 1688, when James II and VII was deposed as king of England and replaced by James’s daughter, Mary, and his nephew and Mary’s husband, the Dutch William III. The Revolution was virtually bloodless. James was regarded as autocratic, especially for actions such as the suspension of Parliament. One of the Revolution’s outcomes was to assert the primacy of Parliament over the Crown, as laid down in the 1689 Bill of Rights (a restatement in statute form of the Declaration of Right, which was initially presented to William and Mary).

Glorious Revolution Quotes in Reflections on the Revolution in France

The Reflections on the Revolution in France quotes below are all either spoken by Glorious Revolution or refer to Glorious Revolution. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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).
Section 2 Quotes

…[T]he political Divine proceeds dogmatically to assert, that by the principles of the Revolution the people of England have acquired three fundamental rights, all which, with him, compose one system, and lie together in one short sentence; namely, that we have acquired a right 1. ‘To choose our own governors.’ 2. ‘To cashier them for misconduct.’ 3. ‘To frame a government for ourselves.’ This new, and hitherto unheard-of bill of rights, though made in the name of the whole people, belongs to those gentlemen and their faction only. […] [The people of England] will resist the practical assertion of it with their lives and fortunes. They are bound to do so by the laws of their country, made at the time of that very Revolution, which is appealed to in favour of the fictitious rights claimed by the society which abuses its name.

Related Characters: Edmund Burke (speaker), Richard Price
Page Number: 17
Explanation and Analysis:
Section 5 Quotes

The third head of right […] the ‘right to form a government for ourselves,’ has, at least, as little countenance from any thing done at the Revolution, either in precedent or principle, as the two first of their claims. The Revolution was made to preserve our antient indisputable laws and liberties, and that antient constitution of government which is our only security for law and liberty. […] The very idea of the fabrication of a new government is enough to fill us with disgust and horror. We wished at the period of the Revolution, and do now wish, to derive all we possess as an inheritance from our forefathers. […] All the reformations we have hitherto made, have proceeded upon the principle of reference to antiquity; and I hope, nay I am persuaded, that all those which possibly may be made hereafter, will be carefully formed upon analogical precedent, authority, and example.

Related Characters: Edmund Burke (speaker), Richard Price
Page Number: 32
Explanation and Analysis:
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Glorious Revolution Term Timeline in Reflections on the Revolution in France

The timeline below shows where the term Glorious Revolution appears in Reflections on the Revolution in France. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Section 2
The Use and Abuse of History Theme Icon
Revolution and Reform Theme Icon
...Love of Our Country, Price asserts three “fundamental rights,” according with the principles of the Glorious Revolution , which belong to the English: the right “to choose our own governors”; “to cashier... (full context)
The Use and Abuse of History Theme Icon
Revolution and Reform Theme Icon
Burke argues that the gentlemen of the Revolution Club are so preoccupied with the Glorious Revolution , the Great Rebellion and Commonwealth of 40 years before that, and the current French... (full context)
Section 3
The Use and Abuse of History Theme Icon
Revolution and Reform Theme Icon
Burke says that the principles of the Glorious Revolution must be sought in the Declaration of Right—a “most wise, sober, and considerate declaration, drawn... (full context)
The Use and Abuse of History Theme Icon
Nature, Tradition, and Wisdom Theme Icon
Revolution and Reform Theme Icon
...Act of Settlement and the Declaration of Right contain “the unerring, unambiguous oracles” of the Glorious Revolution . By contrast, today’s so-called revolutionaries, like Price, advance “delusive […] predictions.” The legislators who... (full context)
The Use and Abuse of History Theme Icon
Revolution and Reform Theme Icon
...his argument by saying that the radicals of the Revolution Society “see nothing [in the Glorious Revolution ] but the deviation from the constitution; and they take the deviation from the principle... (full context)
Section 4
The Use and Abuse of History Theme Icon
Revolution and Reform Theme Icon
...misconduct.” Burke points out that those who influenced the abdication of King James desired that Glorious Revolution to be “a parent of settlement, and not a nursery of future revolutions.” (full context)
The Use and Abuse of History Theme Icon
Revolution and Reform Theme Icon
...a loose term that any government could be undone by it. The leaders of the Glorious Revolution relied on no such term; they charged James with the subversion of the Protestant Church... (full context)
The Use and Abuse of History Theme Icon
Revolution and Reform Theme Icon
...seldom be done without force—making it “a case of war, and not of constitution.” The Glorious Revolution of 1688 was a just war, dealing with out-of-the-ordinary abuses. Such an event should be... (full context)
Section 5
The Use and Abuse of History Theme Icon
Nature, Tradition, and Wisdom Theme Icon
Revolution and Reform Theme Icon
...Burke asserts that the radicals can draw no more precedent for this “right” from the Glorious Revolution than they could for the previous ones. He explains that “the Revolution was made to... (full context)