They were unacquainted with any authority superior to his, and the phantom of tyranny which performed these oppressive acts was unaccompanied by that force which justifies submission by affording the plea of necessity.
Burke discusses the lack of legitimate authority that justified the subjects' submission to oppression.
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A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.
They have little regard to the obvious consequences of their doctrine, though they may see that it leaves positive authority in very few of the positive institutions of this country.
The people of England will not ape the fashions they have never tried, nor go back to those which they have found mischievous on trial.
Though a king may abdicate for his own person, he cannot abdicate for the monarchy.
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