But the most favorable laws can do very little towards the happiness of a people, when the disposition of the ruling power is adverse to them.
Edmund Burke: “But the most favorable laws can do very little towards the happiness of a people, when the disposition of the ruling…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke argues that favorable laws are ineffective if the ruling power is not supportive of the people's happiness.
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Who could flatter himself that these men, suddenly, and as it were by enchantment, snatched from the humblest rank of subordination, would not be intoxicated with their unprepared greatness?
We procure reverence to our civil institutions on the principle upon which Nature teaches us to revere individual men: on account of their age, and on account of those from whom they are descended.
Do they mean to attaint and disable backwards all the kings that have reigned before the Revolution, and consequently to stain the throne of England with the blot of a continual usurpation?
No experience has taught us that in any other course or method than that of an hereditary crown our liberties can be regularly perpetuated and preserved sacred as our hereditary right.





