Here is a principle of treacherous fidelity, of perfidious honor, of the faith of conspirators against their masters, the faith of robbers against the public, held up against the duty of an officer in a public situation.
Burke critiques a betrayal of public duty masked as loyalty, highlighting the moral decay in governance.
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They look on the frame of their commonwealth, such as it stands, to be of inestimable value; and they conceive the undisturbed succession of the crown to be a pledge of the stability and perpetuity of all the other members of our…
Those who are servants in name, as well as in effect, do not like to be told of their situation, their duty, and their obligations.
Their trust for the future preservation of the Constitution was not in future revolutions.
But supposing they had ranked as they ought to do, and as with us they do actually, the sides of sick-beds are not the academies for forming statesmen and legislators.
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