They are given to understand, that, whatever exaction, whatever oppression or ruin they may suffer, they are to look nowhere for relief but to him: not to the Council, not to the Court of Directors, not to the sovereign authority of Great Britain, but to him, and him only.
Edmund Burke: “They are given to understand, that, whatever exaction, whatever oppression or ruin they may suffer, they are to look…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke emphasizes the dangerous concentration of power in one individual, warning against the neglect of lawful authority.
Share
More from Edmund Burke
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.
If any of them should happen to propose a scheme of liberty soberly limited, and defined with proper qualifications, he will be immediately outbid by his competitors, who will produce something more splendidly popular.
I would not exclude alteration neither; but even when I changed, it should be to preserve.





