Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents

{{Short description|Pamphlet by Edmund Burke}}

{{Italic title}}

Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents is a political pamphlet by the Irish politician and philosopher Edmund Burke, first published on 23 April 1770.{{cite book|author=Matthew Hargraves|title='Candidates for Fame': The Society of Artists of Great Britain, 1760–1791|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y_eyqfCrpu8C&pg=PA108|accessdate=12 August 2019|year=2005|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-11004-3|page=108}} The subject is the nepotism of King George III and the influence of the Court on the House of Commons of Great Britain.{{cite book|author=Ian Ousby|title=The Cambridge Paperback Guide to Literature in English|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=43oBE1nJXaMC&pg=PA59|accessdate=12 August 2012|date=23 February 1996|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-43627-4|pages=59}} The essay was influential in defining political parties and their roles within government.{{cite book|author=Susan E. Scarrow|title=Perspectives on Political Parties: Classic Readings|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lTJnkE5NYC0C&pg=PA37|accessdate=12 August 2012|date=4 October 2002|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-0-312-29523-3|pages=37}} In it, Burke argued that parties are "bod[ies] of men united for promoting by their joint endeavours the national interest upon some particular principle in which they are all agreed. . . . When bad men combine, the good must associate."