There a majority, sometimes real, sometimes pretended, captive itself, compels a captive king to issue as royal edicts, at third hand, the polluted nonsense of their most licentious and giddy coffee-houses.
Burke criticizes the French National Assembly for forcing a captive king to issue decrees that originate from the radical and ill-considered ideas of Parisian coffee-houses.
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Let us imitate their caution, if we wish to deserve their fortune or to retain their bequests.
The improvements of the National Assembly are superficial, their errors fundamental.
I would not exclude alteration neither; but even when I changed, it should be to preserve.
But when the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service.
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