Besides, the people of England well know that the idea of inheritance furnishes a sure principle of conservation, and a sure principle of transmission, without at all excluding a principle of improvement.
Arguing for the British system, Burke explains how the principle of inheritance provides stability and continuity while allowing for necessary societal improvements.
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More from Edmund Burke
If kings who did not owe their crown to the choice of their people had no title to make laws, what will become of the statute De tallagio non concedendo? of the Petition of Right? of the act of Habeas Corpus?
This idea of a liberal descent inspires us with a sense of habitual native dignity, which prevents that upstart insolence almost inevitably adhering to and disgracing those who are the first acquirers of any distinction.
Their trust for the future preservation of the Constitution was not in future revolutions.
An irregular, convulsive movement may be necessary to throw off an irregular, convulsive disease.
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