A Pledge to the People

Edmund Burke pleaded with Parliament to emerge from behind closed doors and reconnect with the British public.

1780

Introduction

In 1780, Parliament stood accused of being out of touch. While MPs entertained generous lobbyists and rubber-stamped ever higher taxes, the country was governed by grossly overstaffed committees behind closed doors. Edmund Burke pleaded for a more direct, self-denying government, and urged the Commons to reconnect with the public.

LET the commons in parliament assembled, be one and the same thing with the commons at large. Let us identify, let us incorporate ourselves with the people. At present all is troubled and cloudy, and distracted, and full of anger and turbulence, both abroad and at home: but the air may be cleared by this storm, and light and fertility may follow it.

Let us give a faithful pledge to the people, that we honour, indeed, the crown; but that we belong to them; that we are their auxiliaries, and not their task-masters; the fellow-labourers in the same vineyard; not lording over their rights, but helpers of their joy: that to tax them is a grievance to ourselves, but to cut off from our enjoyments to forward theirs, is the highest gratification we are capable of receiving.

From The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 2 (of 12).
Questions for Critics

1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?

2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?

3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?

Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.

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