Edmund Burke: “The East India Company in India is not properly a branch of the British nation: it is only a deputation of individuals.”

But when the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service.

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

Let us imitate their caution, if we wish to deserve their fortune or to retain their bequests.

Let us add, if we please, but let us preserve what they have left; and standing on the firm ground of the British Constitution, let us be satisfied to admire, rather than attempt to follow in their desperate flights, the aëronauts of…