Edmund Burke (1729–1797)

Born in Ireland, Edmund Burke was a British statesmen and political thinker who made important contributions to the history of liberty. He defended the cause of freedom in the American colonies, believing that the colonists were continuing the English tradition of freedom which included the Magna Carta (1215) and Bill of Rights (1688). He also aimed to ensure justice and humanity in India under imperial British rule.

In his Reflections on the Revolution in France, Burke wrote against the excesses of the French Revolution. He believed in building on existing foundations, as opposed to sweeping away institutions that had proved their worth, and believed that reform should be cautious, rather than radical and revolutionary.

One of his most well-known speeches is the Speech on Conciliation with the American Colonies (1775) in which he said:
‘To prove that the Americans ought not to be free, we are obliged to depreciate the value of freedom itself; and we never seem to gain a paltry advantage over them in debate, without attacking some of those principles, or deriding some of those feelings, for which our ancestors have shed their blood.’