Edmund Burke: “From thence it is but one step to the subversion of all property.”

The engagement and pact of society, which generally goes by the name of the Constitution, forbids such invasion and such surrender.

It therefore secures both an hereditary crown and an hereditary allegiance.

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.