I have shown your Lordships that his evasions of the clear words of his covenant and the clear words of an act of Parliament were such as did not arise from an erroneous judgment, but from a corrupt intention; and I believe you will find that his attempt to evade the law aggravates infinitely his guilt in breaking it.
Burke emphasizes the corrupt intentions behind legal evasions, highlighting the severity of breaking the law.
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More from Edmund Burke
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.
Their trust for the future preservation of the Constitution was not in future revolutions.
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?
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