The great trunk of Bourbon is cut down; the withered branch is worked up into the construction of a French Regicide Republic.
Edmund Burke: “The great trunk of Bourbon is cut down; the withered branch is worked up into the construction of a French Regicide…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke describes the transformation of the Bourbon monarchy into a radical French republic.
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By adhering in this manner and on those principles to our forefathers, we are guided, not by the superstition of antiquarians, but by the spirit of philosophic analogy.
Who could conceive that men who are habitually meddling, daring, subtle, active, of litigious dispositions and unquiet minds, would easily fall back into their old condition of obscure contention, and laborious, low, and unprofitable…
An irregular, convulsive movement may be necessary to throw off an irregular, convulsive disease.
They look upon the legal hereditary succession of their crown as among their rights, not as among their wrongs,--as a benefit, not as a grievance,--as a security for their liberty, not as a badge of servitude.





