On the record
When manners were corrupted, the laws were relaxed; as the latter always follow the former, when they are not able to regulate them or to vanquish them.
Said by
Edmund Burke
Source
gutenberg.orgEdmund Burke: “When manners were corrupted, the laws were relaxed; as the latter always follow the former, when they are not able to…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke asserts that societal morals dictate the laws governing marriage and divorce.
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More from Edmund Burke
Jan 1, 1790
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.
Jan 1, 1790
Though a king may abdicate for his own person, he cannot abdicate for the monarchy.
Jan 1, 1790
The House of Lords, for instance, is not morally competent to dissolve the House of Commons,--no, nor even to dissolve itself, nor to abdicate, if it would, its portion in the legislature of the kingdom.
Jan 1, 1790
This is the spirit of our Constitution, not only in its settled course, but in all its revolutions.
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