Had the economy of selection and proportion been at all times observed, we should not now have had an overgrown Duke of Bedford, to oppress the industry of humble men, and to limit, by the standard of his own conceptions, the justice, the bounty, or, if he pleases, the charity of the crown.
Burke critiques the concentration of power and wealth, linking it to the oppression of the common people.
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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.
This is the spirit of our Constitution, not only in its settled course, but in all its revolutions.
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?
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.
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