The Eloquence in Wartime:

Mackintosh on Burke’s Letters on a Regicide Peace

Author

Affiliation

Chihiro Kariya, PhD

Kanazawa University

Abstract

This paper explores the political context of eloquence in Britain during the French Revolutionary Wars, by examining the controversy on peace with France. Burke’s enigmatic political pamphlet Letters on a Regicide Peace, published for continuing the war in 1796, is one of the most difficult works to interpret. The pamphlet which interweaves threads of rich rhetoric and antagonism toward France has kept scholarship away for a long time. Some scholars have found in the text international theory, and a newly invented word, diplomacy, emphasizing his talent, originality, and innovation. But since they have not paid attention to the reaction from his contemporary, his intention, and the context, the interpretations may be anachronistic. This essay reads the pamphlet in the contemporary controversy, especially with James Mackintosh, who published Vindiciae Gallicae in 1791. His review on Letters on a Regicide Peace, which appeared in Monthly Review in 1796 and refuted Burke’s opinion, has been rarely considered. This paper argues Mackintosh adapted the alternative strategy focusing on Burke’s eloquence or rhetoric, rule of law, and opinions, which were not any subject to Burke. First, after introducing the period background and brief overview of Letters on a Regicide Peace, it shows that Mackintosh warned Burkes’ eloquence by referring to the canonical speeches by Demosthenes and Cicero, and by putting his pamphlet in the context of literature such as The Life of Henry the Fifth (William Shakespeare) and Paradise Regained (John Milton). Second, it focuses on disagreement on the idea of opinions between them. He locked Burke’s perilous gift for eloquence, which incited people to the war persuasively, and called for anti-war.