When I contemplate the scheme on which France is formed, and when I compare it with these systems with which it is and ever must be in conflict, those things which seem as defects in her polity are the very things which make me tremble.
Burke reflects on the complexities and potential flaws within the French political system during a time of upheaval.
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The speculative line of demarcation, where obedience ought to end and resistance must begin, is faint, obscure, and not easily definable.
Those who are servants in name, as well as in effect, do not like to be told of their situation, their duty, and their obligations.
The people of England will not ape the fashions they have never tried, nor go back to those which they have found mischievous on trial.
So far is it from being true that we acquired a right by the Revolution to elect our kings, that, if we had possessed it before, the English nation did at that time most solemnly renounce and abdicate it, for themselves, and for all their…
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