In 1789, moral philosopher and dissenting minister Richard Price was watching the French Revolution, and felt that it was fulfilling prophecies of his millennialist belief that a great change was going to transform humanity.

Because the revolution was overthrowing the French rulers and was seen as a dangerous example by the English political class, it was important to assert the fact that revolutionaries can be as "patriotic" as defenders of the country as it was.

Liberty is a great blessing to be advocated with patriotic zeal, essential to the prosperity of any nation, something to be defended both from external aggression and internal oppression.

I have lived to see Thirty Millions of people, indignant and resolute, spurning at slavery, and demanding liberty with an irresistible voice; their king led in triumph, and an arbitrary monarch surrendering himself to his subjects.

[2]This speech was quickly picked up by pamphleteers and printed in London and Boston, spurring responses both by supporters and critics in a flurry of debate known as the Revolution Controversy.

Edmund Burke criticised Price's ideas and defended the British constitution, converting a short text of his own into a longer response, Reflections on the Revolution in France.