Biography

Joseph Priestley was born on March 13, 1733. The bulk of his career was devoted to the study of chemistry, and he was particularly interested in gases, which were then called "airs." At the time, only three gases (air, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen) were known. By the end of his career, however, Priestley had discovered ten more, including oxygen, nitrogen, carbon monoxide, and nitrous oxide (laughing gas). He also invented a device to carbonate water that, despite failing to accomplish its medical purpose, would later make possible the soda water industry. In addition to the sciences, throughout his life Priestley was an active Dissenter. From early life he identified with the Unitarian Church rather than the church of England, and also wrote several pieces in which he took the side of radical, dissenting thinkers. In 1791, a mob destroyed his home and laboratory, and Priestley was forced to take up residence with Richard Price and his family before taking up a teaching job at Oxford. Later that year, he wrote Letters to the Right Honorable Edmund Burke, in which he defended his political views. During the 1794 treason trials Priestley was forced to flee to the United States, where he lived the rest of his years. He died on February 6, 1804 in Northumberland, Pennsylvania.

Role in the Conversation

Though more accomplished in the sciences, Joseph Priestley nevertheless played an influential role in the political discussions of the 1790s. He was close friends with the most influential radical thinkers in England, including Richard Price, with whom he lived for a short time. Priestley's Letters to the Right Honorable Edmund Burke are a series of public letters addressed to Burke's on the subject of his recently published Reflections on the Revolution in France. Like many other radical tracts, Priestley's Letters angrily contradicts Burke's ideas of government and the rights of mankind. What follows are summaries of two of the more important ones.

Summary of Reflections on the Revolution in France

Priestly contradicts Burke's negative opinions about the French Revolution, arguing that it is the right of the citizens of any nation to determine what government they will have and how it will be run. He begins his letter by accusing Burke of hot-headedness, causing inability to judge the revolution correctly, writing "You appear to me not to be so sufficiently cool to enter into this serious discussion. Your imagination is evidently heated, and your ideas confused" (175).

Priestley then moves on to praise the principles and methods of the French Revolution. He congratulates the French, arguing that "It is the acquiescence of the people that gives any form of government its proper sanction, and that legalizes it" (178). He then discusses his hope for a liberal and egalitarian future for French society, using the example of the American Revolution as a evidence of the ability of revolutions to succeed. Though he is not sure the French Revolution will turn out equally well, he believes it will, and "presume[s] that they could not at the time have done better" (180).