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Primary sourceBook1886 edition

Thoughts on the Present Discontents, and Speeches

Edmund Burke · 1886 edition

A collection of Burke's political pamphlet and speeches, published in an 1886 edition.

This volume collects Burke's own political writings and speeches, central primary sources for his political thought.

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What it is

This book collects Edmund Burke's pamphlet Thoughts on the Present Discontents along with several of his speeches, including on the Middlesex Election and on parliamentary reform. This edition was published by Cassell & Company in 1886, with a transcription made later for digital readers.

Why it matters

Burke was a major figure in British politics during the 1760s–1780s. These writings and speeches show his views on government, representation, and the proper limits of political power, which are central to his legacy as a political theorist.

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  • What political concerns does Burke raise in these speeches?
  • Why might publishers decades later still want to print Burke's political writings?
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Title page of 'Reflections on the Revolution in France', set in serif capitals. Text reads: on the revolution in France, and on the proceedings in certain societies in London relative to that event, in a letter intended to have been sent to a gentleman in Paris, by the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, London: printed for J. Dodsley, in Pall-Mall, MDCCXC. Yellowed paper with a faint stamp mark in the middle.Book

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Title page of a book: "A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful", with an ornate knot-work emblem below, and the imprint 'London: Printed for R. and J. Dodsley, in Pall-mall. MDCCLVII'.Book

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Edmund Burke · 23 April 1770

Oil portrait of a man with powdered grey hair in a loose queue, wearing a red coat with dark collar and a cream lace cravat, turned three-quarters to the left against a dark background.Painting

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Edmund Burke, 1729-1797. Statesman, orator and author

Joshua Reynolds · 1774

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