Burke had supported the American colonists in the build-up to the final split with the mother country, for what the New Englanders and Virginians were fighting for was continuity and constitutional government; their rebellion against the British government, as with their forefathers’ fight against King Charles I, was viewed as essentially conservative. However, when a new, far more radical revolution shook the world a decade later Burke’s place in the conservative pantheon of pessimism became assured.
