What! alter our sublime Constitution, the glory of France, the envy of the world, the pattern for mankind, the masterpiece of legislation, the collected and concentrated glory of this enlightened age?
Edmund Burke: “What! alter our sublime Constitution, the glory of France, the envy of the world, the pattern for mankind, the…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke passionately defends the French Constitution as a remarkable achievement worthy of admiration.
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By adhering in this manner and on those principles to our forefathers, we are guided, not by the superstition of antiquarians, but by the spirit of philosophic analogy.
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…
The engagement and pact of society, which generally goes by the name of the Constitution, forbids such invasion and such surrender.
As he is not to obey us, but we are to obey the law in him, our Constitution has made no sort of provision towards rendering him, as a servant, in any degree responsible.





