We have been in a grievous error: we thought that we had been at war with rebels against the lawful government, but that we were friends and allies of what is properly France, friends and allies to the legal body politic of France.
Edmund Burke: “We have been in a grievous error: we thought that we had been at war with rebels against the lawful government, but that…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke reflects on the misperception of the French Revolution as a rebellion against legitimate authority.
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But the king of Great Britain obeys no other person; all other persons are individually, and collectively too, under him, and owe to him a legal obedience.
A few years ago I should be ashamed to overload a matter so capable of supporting itself by the then unnecessary support of any argument; but this seditious, unconstitutional doctrine is now publicly taught, avowed, and printed.
An irregular, convulsive movement may be necessary to throw off an irregular, convulsive disease.
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?





