The words of the article do this, or they do nothing; and so far as the crown had a share in passing those acts, the public faith was unquestionably broken.
Edmund Burke: “The words of the article do this, or they do nothing; and so far as the crown had a share in passing those acts, the…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke argues that the wording of an article is crucial, suggesting that the crown's involvement in passing acts breaks public faith.
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Their objects would be enlarged with their elevation; but their disposition, and habits, and mode of accomplishing their designs must remain the same.
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…
The speculative line of demarcation, where obedience ought to end and resistance must begin, is faint, obscure, and not easily definable.
Always acting as if in the presence of canonized forefathers, the spirit of freedom, leading in itself to misrule and excess, is tempered with an awful gravity.





