In short, it is an exchequer in which, if I may be permitted to repeat the words I made use of on a former occasion, extortion is the assessor, in which fraud is the treasurer, confusion the accountant, oblivion the remembrancer.
Edmund Burke: “In short, it is an exchequer in which, if I may be permitted to repeat the words I made use of on a former occasion…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke uses vivid imagery to describe a corrupt financial system, illustrating the chaos and dishonesty within it.
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Who could flatter himself that these men, suddenly, and as it were by enchantment, snatched from the humblest rank of subordination, would not be intoxicated with their unprepared greatness?
The speculative line of demarcation, where obedience ought to end and resistance must begin, is faint, obscure, and not easily definable.
Governments must be abused and deranged indeed, before it can be thought of; and the prospect of the future must be as bad as the experience of the past.
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