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Edmund BurkeReflections On The Revolution In France
Nonfiction | Essay / Speech | Adult | Published in 1790A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Section 5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Section 5 Summary
In the last section, Burke states the main purpose of his letter: to compare what France loses in revolting versus what it gains by its revolution, or, as Burke states, “to compare the whole of what you have substituted in place of what you have destroyed” (164). Burke quantifies this as the Assembly’s ability to provide a stable, sustainable, and defendable government and economy for its citizens. To this claim, Burke believes France was in a better position prior to the French Revolution. He claims that the Assembly provides no clear role for their king, provides no constitution, disproportionately and indiscriminately divides the country, inconsistently and arbitrarily creates laws, devalues the national currency, and undermines the very character that once made France a great nation.
Another chief complaint, and one that bears heavily on France’s ability to defend itself domestically and abroad, is the status of France’s military. According to Burke:
The army (le corps militaire) threatens to fall into the most turbulent anarchy. Entire regiments have dared to violate at once due to the laws, to the king, to the order established by your decrees, and to the oaths which they have taken with the most awful solemnity (212).
He describes accounts of insubordinate soldiers, some even turning violently on their officers. Burke points out the problem with this: a military requires subordination. In the absence of a qualified leader or respected king, a military becomes a democracy, a paradox that overruns itself.
Section 5 Analysis
Burke’s first concrete example here is the Assembly’s use of paper money (assignat) over silver or precious metal coin. Instead of precious metals that have a fixed, tangible global value, the Assembly uses paper money that has an arbitrary value decided by the government. To Burke, this is a good example of abstract vs. concrete value; the French hurt their economy by replacing traditional, working coin with inflated paper money.
Burke’s next example is the lack of care by which the Assembly treats areas of France outside of Paris. He states, “It is impossible not to observe, that in the spirit of this geometrical distribution, an arithmetical arrangement, these pretended citizens treat France exactly like a country of conquest” (183). Here, Burke refers to the series of squares the Assembly divides France into based on size (area), rather than geographic or human composition. The further implication, in destroying their institutions like history, religion, and politics, is they seek to create a uniform national identity, which is further supported by the newly-purposed national curriculum.
As to the military insubordination, while the head of the military expresses surprise at his soldiers’ insubordination, Burke expresses shock at his shock. So concerned is France with abstractions and individualism that “[p]erhaps the soldier has by this time learned, that the assembly itself does not enjoy a much greater degree of liberty than that royal figure” (214). Burke claims that the best situation France can hope for is that one general will rise to great popularity, resulting in some kind of military state/dictatorship.
Burke closes his text by admitting that the conservative course of action is not always the most popular, but the goal of a good politician is not to be popular; it is to provide safe, effective government for its citizenry. Burke states, “Moderation will be stigmatized as the virtue of cowards; and compromise as the prudence of traitors […]” (247). His prediction does come to pass, as Reflections on the Revolutions in France garners negative responses from the leading liberal thinkers of his day. However, some of Burke’s other predictions also come to pass because his path of conservatism was ignored. The conclusion of the French Revolution and reign of Napoleon are just two such examples.
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By Edmund Burke
