Some decent, regulated preëminence, some preference (not exclusive appropriation) given to birth, is neither unnatural, nor unjust, nor impolitic.
Edmund Burke: “Some decent, regulated preëminence, some preference (not exclusive appropriation) given to birth, is neither unnatural…”
Editor's note · Context
From his critique of the French Revolution, Burke argues for the natural and just role of a regulated hereditary preeminence in society.
Share
More from Edmund Burke
The speculative line of demarcation, where obedience ought to end and resistance must begin, is faint, obscure, and not easily definable.
Unquestionably there was at the Revolution, in the person of King William, a small and a temporary deviation from the strict order of a regular hereditary succession; but it is against all genuine principles of jurisprudence to draw a…
Who could doubt but that, at any expense to the state, of which they understood nothing, they must pursue their private interests, which they understood but too well?
Their trust for the future preservation of the Constitution was not in future revolutions.





