The Irish-born member of the British Parliament was sympathetic to the grievances of the American colonies but not (like his onetime friend Thomas Paine) an enthusiastic champion of their independence an acerbic critic of George III but a firm defender of monarchy a staunch opponent of English rapacity in India but a supporter of British Empire an advocate for the gradual emancipation of at least some slaves, but no believer in equality. Had it not been for the revolution in France, Edmund Burke would likely have been remembered, a bit vaguely, as an 18th-century philosopher-statesman of extravagant rhetorical gifts but frustratingly ambivalent views.
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