A scathing indictment of the excesses of the French Revolution and impassioned

defense of the kings agreement to provide a pension to the new-retired Edmund

Burke, A Letter from the Right Honourable Edmund Burke to a Noble Lord is
considered one of the finest examples of political discourse in the English language.
Burke, a retired parliamentarian and forceful advocate of liberty and of the moral
obligation to act in the defense of liberty, was provided a pension to help sustain
him in his waning days (he would die a year after penning this statement).

The word repartee is generally defined as a dialogue between two individuals,

usually occurring in a quick and easy manner among people of amiable disposition.
John Morleys use of that word to describe Burkes letter is intended as laudatory
while acknowledging the level of sarcasm prevalent throughout the letter. Anybody
who as observed members of a democratic parliament or congress, such as exists in
the United States, is accustomed to the routine formalities that pass as pleasantries
during particularly impassioned debates when tempers are running high and
partisanship reaches extremes. Displays of civility are frequently a faade behind
which rests seething hatred and a fierce determination to undermine the intent of
the other individual. Such is the case with the opening to Burkes letter:

I could hardly flatter myself with the hope that so very early in the season I should
have to acknowledge obligations to the Duke of Bedford, and to the Earl of
Lauderdale. These noble persons have lost no time in conferring upon me that sort
of honour which it is alone within their competence, and which it is certainly most
congenial to their nature, and their manners, to bestow.

Burke is addressing the verbal attacks on the kings decision to grant him a pension
levied upon himself by his political opponents, particularly the Duke of Bedford. To
the uninformed, it would appear as though the text that followed would be
laudatory in its intent. The opposite, however, is the case. Letter to a Noble Lord
proceeds to illuminate the hypocrisy inherent in his opponents position and the
ignorance Burke perceives in the dukes attacks. The French Revolution, Burke
correctly observed, was anything but democratic as it evolved from its once noble
causes to what would become known as the Reign of Terror. Unlike Burke, the
Duke of Bedford, heir to a long and distinguished line of dukes, was wealthy and
unfamiliar with the financial considerations common among those less fortunate.
Burke rightly saw the bloody attacks upon the privileged classes of France as a
warning to the privileged classes of Britain that political turbulence could deprive
those classes of their wealth.
Burkes letter is not a dialogue, let alone an example of repartee. That word is
employed as sarcasm. The letter poses a number of rhetorical questions that Burke
answers himself, thereby pretending to a discussion that involves but the one
individual. When he inquires of his detractors, Why will they not let me remain in
obscurity and inaction? Are they apprehensive that if an atom of me remains, the
sect has something to fear? he fully intends to answer the questions himself