On the recordJanuary 1, 1790
You hold up, to chastise them, the second-hand authority of a king, who is only the instrument of destroying, without any power of protecting either the people or his own person.
Said by
Edmund Burke
Source
gutenberg.orgEdmund Burke: “You hold up, to chastise them, the second-hand authority of a king, who is only the instrument of destroying, without…”
Editor's note · Context
In his critique of the French Revolution, Burke describes the revolutionaries' cynical use of the king as a powerless instrument of their will.
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Though a king may abdicate for his own person, he cannot abdicate for the monarchy.
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We procure reverence to our civil institutions on the principle upon which Nature teaches us to revere individual men: on account of their age, and on account of those from whom they are descended.
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If kings who did not owe their crown to the choice of their people had no title to make laws, what will become of the statute De tallagio non concedendo? of the Petition of Right? of the act of Habeas Corpus?
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