What is this but to avow a resolution utterly to destroy their own country, and to force the people to pay for their sufferings to a government which has proved unable to protect either the share of the husbandman or their own?
Burke condemns the resolution that forces the people to pay for their suffering under a government that fails to protect them.
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More from Edmund Burke
But when the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service.
Let us imitate their caution, if we wish to deserve their fortune or to retain their bequests.
If any of them should happen to propose a scheme of liberty soberly limited, and defined with proper qualifications, he will be immediately outbid by his competitors, who will produce something more splendidly popular.
Our people will find employment enough for a truly patriotic, free, and independent spirit, in guarding what they possess from violation.
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