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Respected as a magnificent orator throughout his 30-year parlimentary career, Burke was often, perhaps unfairly, accused of inconsistency. He defended the English Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the American Revolution, yet attacked the French Revolution bitterly. He was infuriated at the notion that Britain should learn from the French experience and allow all citizens the vote, and argued that traditonal ruling practices in general and the monarchy in particular were essential elements of a stable, ordered society. Burke pitted the chaotic, uncontrollable changes of the French Revolution against (as he saw it) the British tradition of order and liberty. To Burke, the moral claim of the revolution to be in defence of the natural "rights of man" was a nonsense: although the British parliament depended on the approval of the British people for its authority to rule, this did not mean that citizens had the right to influence their rulers.

Burke was a ruthless critic, however, of the excesses of established government: he campaigned against the persecution of CatholicsThe Roman Catholic Church (often called simply the Catholic Church, but see Catholicism for other meanings of the term "Catholic Church") is a worldwide body of Christians in full communion with the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, and subscribing to the beliefs in Ireland, denounced the East India CompanyThe British East India Company popularly known as John Company was founded by a Royal Charter of Queen Elizabeth I on December 31, 1600. Over the next 250 years, it became one of the most powerful commercial enterprises of its time. The British East India and had Warren HastingsWarren Hastings ( December 6 1732 August 22 1818) was the first governor-general of British India, from 1773 to 1786. He was famously impeached in the 1780s for corruption. Warren Hastings was born December 6 1732 at Churchill, Oxfordshire. He joined the, the governor-general of BengalFor the breed of cat, see Bengal cat; for the tiger, see Bengal Tiger. Bengal Banga Bangla Bangadesh or Bangladesh in Bengali) comprises a region in the northeast of the Indian subcontinent, today divided between the independent country of Bangladesh and, impeached. For Burke, there was no inconsistency in these views: it was the duty of citizens to submit to traditional authorityIn politics, authority generally refers to the ability to make laws, independent of the power to enforce them, or the ability to permit something. People obey authority out of respect, while they obey power out of fear. For example, the congress has the a, but it was equally the duty of rulers to act wisely and fairly. His strong criticism of the excesses of British rule in Ireland, IndiaThe Republic of India is a large multicultural country in South Asia, with a population of over one billion. The Indian economy is the fourth largest in the world, in terms of purchasing power parity, and is the world's second-fastest growing economy. and America was not motivated by any wish to support the notion of natural rights; on the contrary, he argued, it was simple pragmatism: by ruling in a way that was manifestly unfair and exploitative, traditional authorities risked formenting the worst of all possible outcomes, popular revolutionThis article is about revolution in the sense of a drastic change. For other meanings of the word, see revolution (disambiguation). A revolution is a relatively sudden and absolutely drastic change. This may be a change in the social or political institut.