They expect from the virtues of returning despotism the security which is to be enjoyed by the offspring of their popular vices.
Edmund Burke: “They expect from the virtues of returning despotism the security which is to be enjoyed by the offspring of their…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke sarcastically observes that the French revolutionaries, despite their popular vices, anticipate security from the eventual return of a despotic order.
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More from Edmund Burke
The improvements of the National Assembly are superficial, their errors fundamental.
Whatever they are, I wish my countrymen rather to recommend to our neighbors the example of the British Constitution than to take models from them for the improvement of our own.
They come from one who has been no tool of power, no flatterer of greatness, and who in his last acts does not wish to belie the tenor of his life.
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.





