"The Enlightenment, as the eighteenth century came to be called, was an age of optimism, tampered by the realistic recognition of the sad state of the human condition and the need for major reform." (Hamberman, 144) Edmund Burke was a leading British philosopher and statesman of the (take out of the and add during the) Enlightenment. He was born in Ireland in 1729, and was abandoned by his parents at the age of ten. He went to Trinity Collage in 1744 and then moved to London in 1750 (Smeenge, 1). He became involved in politics at the age of 36 and by then he had become a private secretary of a parliamentarian, who was one of the leaders of a prominent party at that time known as the Whigs (Smeenge, 1). He soon after he became an important individual in the controversy that surrounded the tug of war between parliament and the king on the struggle for power of the state, as well as the trouble that England was facing with it's American colonies. Burke criticized the king's government and was supportive of the American rebels. This is evident from what is said to be a quote said by him in which he stated, "People crushed by law have no hopes but from power. If laws are their enemies, they will be enemies to the laws; and those who have much to hope and nothing to lose will always be dangerous." Edmund Burke was a "British statesman, parliamentary orator and political thinker, who played a prominent part in all major political issues for about 30 years after 1765, and remained an important figure in the history of political theory." (Smeenge, 1)
             The quote that Burke stated in order to, in a sense defend as well as show his sympathy towards the American rebels, goes as follows, "People crushed by law have no hopes but from power. If laws are their enemies, they will be enemies to the laws; and those who have much to hope and nothing to lose will always be dangerous." The quote in the ge...