ABSTRACT
The mid-twentieth century has come to look upon Edmund Burke in a special way. He was admired by Liberals and Conservatives in the nineteenth century, both of whom drew inspiration from him. The argument from circumstances is one that fits ill with conservatism, for it disarms dogma. By emphasizing circumstances and social evolution—both deeply Burkeian concepts—nineteenth-century reformers could slide around the barriers put up by entrenched ideas, not so much by directly refuting them as by making them irrelevant. It was Burke’s emphasis upon the argument from circumstances, repeated over and over again, that led John Morley to praise him fulsomely as the prophet of Liberalism. The argument from circumstances, Stephen remarked, is the “true method” of enlightened politics. One searches in vain in most Liberal speeches for arguments based on broad theories about the good society.
