On the record
Will you believe, my Lords, that a people having no laws, no rights, no property, no honor, would be at the trouble of having so many writers on jurisprudence?
Said by
Edmund Burke
Source
gutenberg.orgEdmund Burke: “Will you believe, my Lords, that a people having no laws, no rights, no property, no honor, would be at the trouble of…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke questions the logic of claiming a people have no laws or rights when they produce extensive legal literature.
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Jan 1, 1790
Whatever they are, I wish my countrymen rather to recommend to our neighbors the example of the British Constitution than to take models from them for the improvement of our own.
Jan 1, 1790
The improvements of the National Assembly are superficial, their errors fundamental.
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If any of them should happen to propose a scheme of liberty soberly limited, and defined with proper qualifications, he will be immediately outbid by his competitors, who will produce something more splendidly popular.
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Let us add, if we please, but let us preserve what they have left; and standing on the firm ground of the British Constitution, let us be satisfied to admire, rather than attempt to follow in their desperate flights, the aëronauts of…
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