The first that are brought forward suffer the extremity of the law, with circumstances of mitigation of their case; and after a time, the most atrocious delinquents escape merely by the satiety of punishment.
Burke critiques the inconsistency in the application of law, highlighting the disparity in punishment based on timing.
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An irregular, convulsive movement may be necessary to throw off an irregular, convulsive disease.
The engagement and pact of society, which generally goes by the name of the Constitution, forbids such invasion and such surrender.
When such an unwarrantable maxim is once established, that no throne is lawful but the elective, no one act of the princes who preceded this era of fictitious election can be valid.
This idea of a liberal descent inspires us with a sense of habitual native dignity, which prevents that upstart insolence almost inevitably adhering to and disgracing those who are the first acquirers of any distinction.
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