Biography

Richard Price was born on February 23, 1723 in Wales. In adulthood, he was a Presbyterian minister and a well-known and -respected Dissenter. Between the 1750s and 1780s, he wrote, among other things, Preview of the Principle Questions and Difficulties in Morals; An Appeal on the Subject of the National Debt; and Civil Liberty, the Principles of Government, and the Justice and Policy of the War with America. His papers influenced the policies of William Pitt and earned him admittance to the royal society in 1765. In 1789 he delivered his famous speech, "A Discourse on the Love of our Country," which came to be most widely known as the impetus for Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France. He died, at the age of 68 in 1791.

Role in the Conversation

During his lifetime, Price exerted a sizeable influence over the policies of England. Not only did his An Appeal on the Subject of the National Debt urge Pitt to reestablish the sinking fund, but Proce also helped introduce the ideas of life insurance and welfare into the public consciousness. Although he died at the beginning of the 1790s, Price's ideas continued to hold a powerful influence over the democratic movement at that time. Most importantly, "A Discourse on the Love of our Country" engendered Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France, which in turn incited such important figures as Thomas Paine and Mary Wollstonecraft to reply, and which incited one of the most influential arguments in political history.

Summary of "A Discourse on the Love of Our Country"

Price begins by discussing the idea that love for one's country should imply love for one's fellow citizens. In other words, it is not the land that is important, but the people who are united by the bond of citizenship. And while it is certainly important to love one's fellow citizen, it is not healthy to develop rivalries and animosity between countries. Establishing the importance of the nation, Price then moves on to discuss the importance of education and liberty within a nation: "By the diffusion of knowledge it must be distinguished from a country of barbarians: by the practice of religious virtue, it must be distinguished from a country of gamblers, atheists, and libertines: and by the possession of liberty, it must be distinguished from a country of slaves" (181). As he draws to a close, Price lists three rights that he believes are natural to all men: "the right to liberty of conscience in religious matters," "the right to resist power when abused," and "the right to chuse our own governors, the cashier them for misconduct, and to frame a government for ourselves" (189-90). These three rights will become the cornerstone of Burke's objection to Price's principles.