3 Edmund Burke and Rational Dissent Martin Fitzpatrick and Anthony Page This essay discusses the relationship between Edmund Burke and the rational Dissenters who were an important reformist element within the British Enlightenment. The frst section examines Burke’s attitude towards Dissent, especially rational Dissent; the second looks at Joseph Priestley’s perception of Burke; and the fnal section looks at the attitude of a provincial rational Dissenter, Samuel Kenrick, through his correspondence with his Scottish friend Rev. James Wodrow. Rational Dissenters formed a loose but powerful grouping within Protestant Dissent. They were usually highly educated, liberal in theology and many were forcefully heterodox, becoming Unitarian in theology. In politics they were reformist, covering a spectrum from moderate to radical. They were considerable self-publicists and played a major role in the media. Forming ‘a sort of cultural imperium in imperio’ (Lincoln 1938, 53), and an incipient middle class, they were subject to discriminatory laws that gave an edge to their self-understanding. During the American Revolution they would be natural allies of Burke, but subsequently they would become his natural enemies. For Burke, as L. G. Mitchell has noted, ‘religious dissent of all kinds acquired a demonic character’ (Writings and Speeches, 8:8). 1 Edmund Burke (1730–1797) was born in Dublin where the majority of its inhabitants (as in the rest of Ireland) were Roman Catholics. While Burke was brought up a member of the Church of Ireland, he always looked with favour on measures for extending toleration to the Catholic Community. Some believe that his father, an attorney, had converted from Catholicism to Protestantism in order to practise the law. F. P. Lock, however, in his recent two-volume biography has concluded that Burke’s father, Richard, was brought up a Protestant (1998, 26). 2 Burke’s mother Mary Nagle, however, was certainly a Roman Catholic and his sister Juliana was raised and remained Catholic. 3 These circumstances made Burke sensitive to the importance of 1 See also Duf (2011, 63). 2 This remains a contentious view. O’Brien (1992, 3–13) has argued that Richard Burke did convert to Anglicanism in 1722 but was already practising as an attorney. 3 She was, according to the register of the Church of Ireland, baptized a Protestant, 9781441196651_txt_print.indd 55 14/07/2016 15:45 Uncorrected proof copy Martin Fitzpatrick and Anthony Page, “Edmund Burke and Rational Dissent”, in Martin Fitzpatrick and Peter Jones, eds, The Reception of Edmund Burke in Europe (Bloomsbury Publishing, London, 2017), pp. 55-74.