Edmund Burke: “That liberty was found, under monarchies styled absolute, in a degree unknown to the ancient commonwealths.”

They will become flatterers instead of legislators,--the instruments, not the guides of the people.

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.

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.

The improvements of the National Assembly are superficial, their errors fundamental.