The Language of War and Peace in Britain during the French Revolution:
Controversy over Burke’s Letters on a Regicide Peace
Abstract
This paper examines the language of war and peace in Revolutionary-era Britain through political pamphlets responding to Edmund Burke’s Letters on a Regicide Peace (First and Second Letters). While Burke defended continued war against Revolutionary France, his opponents challenged both his arguments and his conception of peace. By analysing how these pamphleteers interpreted Burke and the rhetorical strategies they employed, and by comparing their arguments with leading modern interpretations of the Letters, the paper reconstructs the controversy in its contemporary context. It argues that the debate intertwined the languages of revolution, public opinion, finance, alliances, and the law of nations, illustrating a dynamic form of linkage politics that connected domestic and international affairs and reshaped the relationship between public opinion and foreign policy.