The question with them was not, whether they were to remain as they had been before the troubles,--for better, he allowed, they could not hope to be,--but whether they were to give up so happy a situation without a struggle.
Burke reflects on the difficult choices faced by the American colonists during their struggle for independence.
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More from Edmund Burke
Whatever they are, I wish my countrymen rather to recommend to our neighbors the example of the British Constitution than to take models from them for the improvement of our own.
They will become flatterers instead of legislators,--the instruments, not the guides of the people.
The improvements of the National Assembly are superficial, their errors fundamental.
They come from one who has been no tool of power, no flatterer of greatness, and who in his last acts does not wish to belie the tenor of his life.
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