ABSTRACT
Why had France had a Revolution in the late eighteenth century, while Britain had not? At least in literary terms, by the early 1830s, this complex question had an almost standardized answer. Whereas Britain had initially reacted favorably to the French Revolution, Edmund Burke had correctly forecast its imminent dangers in his Reflections on the Revolution in France, published in November 1790. Burke’s reading of the historical significance of the Revolution in this and later writings had alerted Britons to its perils, and common sense had saved the nation. Thus although by birth an Irishman, Burke became a champion of the British state.
