Author	Fennessy, R. R. author
Title	Burke, Paine, and the Rights of Man [electronic resource] : A Difference of Political Opinion / by R. R. Fennessy
Imprint	Dordrecht : Springer Netherlands, 1963
Connect to	http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-3637-0
Descript	XIII, 277 p. online resource

At the present day, when there is renewed interest in the concept of human rights and in the application of this concept to the problems of government,! it may be instructive to review an eighteenth-century dispute which was concerned precisely with these themes. Nor should the investigation be any less interesting because the disputants were Edmund Burke and Thomas Paine: both these men have also been the object of renewed attention and study in recent years. Critical work on the biography and bibliography of Paine is being done by Professor Aldridge and Col. Richard Gimbel respectively;2 while Burke is being well looked after, not only by the able team of experts who, under the leadership of Professor Copeland, are engaged in producing the critical edition of his Correspondence, but also by such individual scholars as D. C. Bryant, C. B. Cone, T. H. D. Mahoney, 3 P. J. Stanlis, C. Parkin, F. Canavan, and A. Cobban. But though Burke and Paine are being studied separately, little work appears to have been done on the relationship between them, apart from an 4 essay by Professor Copeland published more than twelve years ago. It is hoped that the present study, while it does not claim to add anything to the facts about Burke and Paine already known to his- 1 See Nehemiah Robinson, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

One / A Public Controversy 1790โ{128}{147}1792 -- Publication of Reflections; mixed reception -- English opinion of the French revolution; surprise at Burkeโ{128}{153}s hostility -- Paineโ{128}{153}s complaint against Burke; was it justified? -- Two / Thomas Paine: the man and his ideas 1737โ{128}{147}1790 -- I. Paineโ{128}{153}s Early Life -- II. Paineโ{128}{153}s Political Ideas -- III. Paineโ{128}{153}s Hopes of a Political Reformation in England. His Return to Europe -- Three / A different outlook: Edmund Burke -- I. Burke and Paine Contrasted -- II. Burkeโ{128}{153}s Characteristic Ideas -- III. Burkeโ{128}{153}s Reaction to the French Revolution -- Four / Burke rejects the rights of man -- I. Criticism of the โ{128}{156}Rights of Manโ{128}{157} Philosophy -- II. The โ{128}{156}Rights of Manโ{128}{157} Philosophy Incompatible with the Spirit of the English Constitution -- III. Criticism -- Five / Paine replies to Burke: Rights of Man -- Paine plans to write on the revolution -- Paine fails to understand Burke -- Paineโ{128}{153}s interpretation of the French revolution -- Man and his rights -- Paineโ{128}{153}s attack on the English constitution -- Rejection of the hereditary principle in government -- Rejection of state religion -- Criticism of the English financial system -- Attack on the English crown, and parliamentary system of government -- Conclusion -- Six / Reflections and public opinion, 1791 -- The reaction within Burkeโ{128}{153}s own party -- Mackintosh and the โ{128}{156}New Whigsโ{128}{157} -- The reply of the reformers -- Mary Wollstonecraft and the social protest -- Joseph Priestley and the reply of the dissenters -- Burkeโ{128}{153}s retort: โ{128}{156}Either Burke or Paineโ{128}{157} -- Seven / Rights of Man and public opinion, 1791 -- I. The Pamphleteers and Reviewers -- II. Rights of Man and the Constitutional Societies -- III. Positive Effect of Rights of Man. Paine and the Working-Class Movement -- Conclusion -- Ouvrages publiรฉs dans la Collection de lโ{128}{153}Ecole des Sciences politiques et sociales