Without such a naval force, France must become despotic mistress of that sea, and of all the countries whose shores it washes.
Edmund Burke: “Without such a naval force, France must become despotic mistress of that sea, and of all the countries whose shores it…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke warns that without naval power, France would dominate the seas and its neighboring countries.
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The ceremony of cashiering kings, of which these gentlemen talk so much at their ease, can rarely, if ever, be performed without force.
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.
But an absurd theory on one side of a question forms no justification for alleging a false fact or promulgating mischievous maxims on the other.
Governments must be abused and deranged indeed, before it can be thought of; and the prospect of the future must be as bad as the experience of the past.





