On the recordJanuary 1, 1790
Nor do I discern the character of a government that has been on the whole so oppressive, or so corrupt, or so negligent, as to be utterly unfit for all reformation.
Said by
Edmund Burke
Source
gutenberg.orgEdmund Burke: “Nor do I discern the character of a government that has been on the whole so oppressive, or so corrupt, or so negligent…”
Editor's note · Context
In his critique of the French Revolution, Burke argues that the pre-revolutionary French government, despite its flaws, was not so corrupt or oppressive as to preclude all possibility of reform.
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Though a king may abdicate for his own person, he cannot abdicate for the monarchy.
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The ceremony of cashiering kings, of which these gentlemen talk so much at their ease, can rarely, if ever, be performed without force.
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Do they mean to attaint and disable backwards all the kings that have reigned before the Revolution, and consequently to stain the throne of England with the blot of a continual usurpation?
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