Burke's opposition to the french revolution focused from the time of the reflections on the abstract as he called them legal foundations to society it proposed(in his view this is the root of populism). Burke's thought focuses on the complexity of human nature and society, and saw laws as a practical tool securing harmony and well being. That body of law(legislative statements) in burke's thought cannot be deduced from abstract propositions or otherwise be a priori known, but can only be "discovered" through experience, hence his great respect for common law(stare decisis) and tradition ( legislative and in general) . Burke is remembered after all as the father of conservatism. " PEOPLE WILL NEVER LOOK FORWARD TO POSTERITY IF THEY DONT LOOK BACKWARD TO TRADITION".

Burke was more sympathetic to the more moderate girondists and again was against the return to the ancien regime, but his speeches in parliment highlighted the weaknesses of the constitutional tradition forming in france next to those of the anglosaxon common law nd constitutionalism developed during a long time (he saw the magna carta as its beggining) and culminating in the american revolution(it had his support).

To sum it all up allthough he was a whig he considered the frendh liberals of the time as rather simplistic and he succesafully predicted the rise of napoleon and the first french empire which he attributed to the weak constitutional and legislative foundtions of the new republic.